The story behind Rabada's appeal

South Africa appealed Kagiso Rabada’s suspension because they believed the International Cricket Council's Code of Conduct was “unfairly forced” upon them, according to team manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee.

Rabada’s two-Test suspension for coming into contact with Australia captain Steve Smith in the second Test was overturned on Tuesday after Judicial Commissioner Mike Heron QC could not be ‘completely satisfied’ the Proteas pace ace intentionally made contact with the batsman.

The 22-year-old was initially charged with breaching Level 2 of the Code of Conduct (COC) for making deliberate and inappropriate physical contact with Smith by ICC match referee Jeff Crowe.

But after finding Rabada innocent of deliberately brushing Smith, Heron dismissed Crowe’s ruling and instead found Rabada guilty of conduct that is contrary to the spirit of cricket, a Level 1 offence that has seen him handed one demerit point and allowed him to play in the remainder of the series, albeit just one minor misdemeanor away from suspension. 

“The decision itself is great for the series and for Test cricket,” Moosajee said. 

“The team is extremely satisfied with the ruling that has been made. We believe that ‘KG’ never deliberately charged Steven Smith with his shoulder. 

“We do understand though that ‘KG’ is quite a fiery character on the field but there are rules and regulations that govern the conduct on the field. 

“Like every other player, this applies to KG as well and he’s well aware of it. He’s the first to admit that he must take better responsibility and better handle his positive and aggressive celebration and not to get careless nor to be disrespectful. 

“At the same time we will always support our players in situations like these where we believe the code of conduct has been unfairly forced upon us. 

“We’d also like to thank the entire South African public and fans worldwide for the messages of support during this time.”

Prior to the successful Rabada outcome, South Africa had not won an appeal when challenging a decision handed down by the ICC.

In the wake of the incident in Port Elizabeth, Proteas captain Faf du Plessis lamented the inconsistency of the ICC and their COC rulings.

Du Plessis said as it stands it is difficult to be consistent when the COC is open to interpretation by match officials.

“One umpire sees Test cricket as a game of playing it hard, not old school, but definitely playing harder and he lets a few things go and then you get umpires that are much more by the book and they look at every single incident,” du Plessis said after day four at St George’s Park.

“For me it’s just let the game play on, let the game be the main focus.

“We understand where there’s boundaries and we don’t try to push them.”

Dr Moosajee echoed du Plessis’s concerns.

“From a South African perspective we have raised issues in the past, not around code of conduct per se but I think the inconsistent application of the code of conduct itself,” he said. 

“In this case, it wasn’t particularly raised as I said, but it has been raised prior to this case.”

He added: “We might have to look at things around processes, independent Judicial Commissions, words in the code of conduct manual. 

“So they’re the kind of debates that will take place and we as South Africa would be happy to contribute to that.”

With Rabada now able to resume hostilities with the Australians, Proteas coach Ottis Gibson says his spearhead has been spoken to about how he celebrates what’s likely to be hundreds more Test wickets in the future. 

Two days after the Smith incident, Rabada screamed in the face of outgoing Australia opener David Warner, a response that saw him fined 25 per cent of his match fee and given one demerit point.

Rabada did not appeal the Warner send-off, admitting after the second Test he made an error, and will test out his new celebration technique at Newlands from Thursday. 

"He's been made very much aware of his on-field celebrations,” Gibson said. 

“He's not badly behaved, he's just very excited and exuberant sometimes. 

“When you're playing against the best team in the world sometimes that comes out of you. 

“In all the stuff that he did there was no aggressive intent other than celebrating a wicket. 

“But we've made him aware of the batsman's space and where his space needs to be. 

“He must get away from the batsman and continue to celebrate and continue certainly to bowl the way he's been bowling over the last two weeks, which has been outstanding.”

Qantas tour of South Africa

South Africa squad: Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen, Quinton de Kock, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Duanne Olivier, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, AB de Villiers.

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Jhye Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.

Warm-up match: Australia beat South Africa A by five wickets. Report, highlights

First Test Australia won by 118 runs. Scorecard

Second Test South Africa won by six wickets. Scorecard

Third Test Newlands, Cape Town, March 22-26. Live coverage

Fourth Test Wanderers, Johannesburg, March 30-April 3. Live coverage