Moises Henriques, the Australia all-rounder has come out in support the three players involved in the ball tampering saga - Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft - stating that the players weren’t cheating for their own but team's benefit.
Henriques took to Twitter to express his opinion, his tweet regarding David Warner stood out when he termed the Australian opener as the player "Selflessly" serving his team even if in the unethical cause of tampering with the ball.
Dave Warner was the player’s most vocal voice during MOU negotiations, copping it from many. Now, ‘caught ball tampering’ trying to selflessly advantage the fast bowling unit - not for his own stats or personal gain. Rightly punished... but he’s a team man.
— Moises Henriques (@Mozzie21) April 10, 2018
In his second tweet, Henriques made his opinion clear that there are far bigger issues that cricket must be focusing on, singling out Matchfixing and drugs taking, rather than overreacting to the unfair but far from being a criminal offence, ball tampering.
My perspective is that there are people who break the rules for personal gain eg. Match fixing for personal financial gain, performance enhancing drugs.... or people who break the rules so others in their team can gain advantage. I’d sooner forgive the latter.
— Moises Henriques (@Mozzie21) April 10, 2018
Moises also made a third tweet where he reiterated that he isn't apologetic for showing sympathy and for being biased towards his teammates.
At the end of the day, it’s not my place to pass judgements. They’ve been punished and judged enough. However I felt as a mate the least I could do is bring to light a slightly more empathetic perspective to their situation. Of course there is bias and I don’t apologise for it.
— Moises Henriques (@Mozzie21) April 11, 2018
He was also quoted to SEN Radio about the same issue, stating, There are two kinds of people who break the rules in sport; ones that do it for their own personal gain, whether that be financial or performance, and there are ones that try and do it for the team and so the team can win, And I’m not saying the second one is okay, it’s definitely not okay, I’m just saying I find one easier to forgive than the other.”
“They did the wrong thing, but they’re trying to do it so the team wins. They’re not fixing a match where they’re trying to purposely lose a game for their own financial gain. There are grey areas in terms of the character of these people. They broke the rules, they’re being punished and fair enough. But some of the comments about their character are a little bit out of line.”
