If you didn’t believe in karma last week, I hope the events of the past few days have made you reconsider.

We are currently watching the Ozzie cricket team unravel at the seams, and yesterday we covered a few bases.

There was the ball-tampering footage itself, and Australia’s Prime Minister weighing in with his disgust here, and then there were all those wonderful headlines and memes doing the rounds here.

Today all the talk is around what suspensions Cricket Australia will hand down, with the ICC having been curtailed by their flimsy demerit points system.

The likes of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft could technically be banned for life under Cricket Australia’s Code of Conduct, but thankfully it looks like some common sense will prevail and that won’t be the case.

Seriously, if you think they need a lifetime ban then you’re letting your distaste for this Ozzie team and the individuals involved cloud your judgement.

The Telegraph dropped an exclusive earlier this morning, claiming to have inside sources, and here’s what they say is going to unfold over the next 24 hours:

Darren Lehmann is expected to announce his resignation as head coach of Australia in the next 24 hours, becoming the first casualty of the ball-tampering scandal.

Sources in Australia have told Telegraph Sport Lehmann is ready to stand down with immediate effect and his decision is partly why James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, suddenly announced on Monday that he is flying to South Africa.

Sutherland is due to meet the players and coaching staff in Johannesburg on Tuesday with a press conference expected that evening when announcements about Lehmann and action against Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are likely to be announced. Smith and Warner are thought to be facing the prospect of 12-month suspensions from the sport.

12 months for Smith and Warner is plenty, although Bancroft must also face the music. It’s clear he was acting on behalf of instructions from senior members of the team, but he willingly chose to participate.

Those bans for Smith and Warner would cost them massive sums of IPL cash, with both having been contracted for over R18 million in the upcoming season.

As for the teammates turning on each other, I love a good bust-up:

Several senior players are understood to be incensed by Smith’s comments on Saturday when he implicated the ‘leadership group’ as a collective in the plan to cheat. It is thought he was trying to protect Warner and spread the blame but team-mates such as Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are believed to be extremely upset to have been dragged into it and had not been involved in the discussions.

They have a right to be bleak, because as the walls close in on David Warner he is looking more and more like the man who made the call to cheat.

Over in Oz he is under the microscope and it’s not pretty – here’s the Sydney Morning Herald:

 …David Warner is emerging as the central character in Australian cricket’s ball-tampering crisis…

Those in the hierarchy at CA have been made aware of suggestions that the vice-captain was the chief conspirator and that Smith foolishly agreed.

Sources close to Warner, however, deny that he was the instigator.

Warner has been the team’s primary ball manager on the ground in recent times but Bancroft, playing in only his eighth Test, took on those duties at Newlands.

Gee, I wonder why Bancroft would suddenly take over. Maybe it’s because Warner is close to a suspension thanks to his demerit points, and he has already been under the spotlight for that excessive taping on his hands in PE.

Perhaps the most stinging rebuke comes from CricketAU, who pulled no punches:

The fact Warner, an at-times outspoken and polarising figure in the cricket world, is yet to speak publicly has been noted by several former players, including former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy.

“David Warner has been very, very quiet and yet 6-12 months ago he was the one doing all the talking as the players were demanding salary increases and models that suited them,” Healy noted…

“He’s gone underground.”

Former England captain Nasser Hussain added on Sky Sports: “David Warner seems to have a lot to say on a cricket field; in the last 48 hours the silence from David Warner has been deafening.”

Like I said, if you were on the fence about karma then surely this is the swing vote? Just bloody grand, I tell you.

Who would have thought that, after the non-stop verbals this series, all it would take to shut David Warner up is a little piece of tape / sandpaper?

Let us part ways with Ozzie radio station Triple-J fronting up to the truth that their players are cheats:

[sources:telegraph&smh&cricketau]