Legacy starts now for tampering trio: Taylor

Former Australia captain Mark Taylor believes Australia's banned ball-tampering trio still have the opportunity to restore their legacies. 

Taylor, who is also a Cricket Australia board member, said the behaviour of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft was a failure in their "responsibility to the game", however he insisted they can all rebuild their shattered reputations with the actions they take upon returning from their bans. 

Smith and Warner were each handed 12-month suspensions for their role in the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal, while Bancroft was suspended for nine months. 

Bancroft and former captain Smith will not be considered in national leadership positions for 12 months after their bans are served, while Warner, the former Test vice-captain and once-regular stand-in captain in the shorter formats, will never be considered again. 

All three players have until Thursday to decide whether to appeal their Cricket Australia-imposed sanctions. 

Asked if there was an opportunity for Steve Smith to repair his reputation, Taylor was unequivocal in his response. 

"Absolutely," he said on Channel Nine's Sports Sunday. "There's an opportunity there for all three (players). 

"You talk about legacy, the short-term legacy is, you're watching all those highlights, you're hearing all those accolades that me and other commentators say about these players – they're heroes, legends, they're wonderful, they're great. 

"But it's tenuous. (This scandal) just shows you that there is also a responsibility to the game in all that, and unfortunately that's been lost this week. 

"But having said that, that's their short-term legacy. Their long-term legacy is they have a real opportunity to do something great for themselves. 

"Yes they've been on a high, now they're on a real low, and sometimes as they say you have to hit rock bottom to get better. Now they can start getting better. 

"Their legacy, I hope for all three of them, is yet to come."

Fellow panelist and former skipper Ian Chappell said Smith's future as captain was clouded, even beyond the two years he faces out of the role. 

"(Coming back to cricket is) going to be hard for all of them," Chappell said. "Because to be a top-class sporting person, you've got to have a lot of confidence in your own ability … that's going to be severely eroded as a player. 

"As far as captaincy for Steve Smith, I don't see how he can come back as a captain. Mark (Taylor) will tell you … that gaining your teammates' respect is one of the important things as a leader, and it's going to be very hard for him to fully regain that respect. 

"In fact I think they'd be doing him a disservice if they gave him the captaincy again."

Chappell also believed the length of the player suspensions was warranted, suggesting Cricket Australia may have actually spared the trio some humiliation next home summer. 

"As far as I'm concerned, Cricket Australia have done Warner and Smith a huge favour," he said. "They've banned them for 12 months - you imagine if next summer they're playing in Australia and they're getting booed by their home crowd. 

"One, it's not going to do their confidence much good. Two, it's not going to do their rehab much good. And three, it's not going to do the Cricket Australia image much good at all.

"So I think it's a sensible ban."

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: Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Matt Renshaw, 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 South Africa won by 322 runs. Scorecard

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