Australia coach Darren Lehmann has broken his silence since the cheating saga in Cape Town.

A tearful Darren Lehmann says their former style of "butting heads on the line" won't stand anymore and the Australia coach has looked towards how New Zealand play cricket to save his team's shattered reputation.

"The thing for me would be if we take a leaf out of someone like, say, New Zealand's book in the way they play and respect the opposition," Lehmann said in Johannesburg when addressing media on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time) for the first time in the wake of the ball tampering scandal.

"We've got to make sure we're respecting the game and its traditions."

AP Only Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft knew about the ball tampering, Cricket Australia says.

The disgraced trio of Steve Smith, David Warner (both 12 months) and Cameron Bancroft (nine months), who conspired to cheat during during the third test against South Africa in Cape Town, have all received bans for their part in the saga that has rocked Australian cricket to the core.

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Cricket Australia's investigation cleared Lehmann of having prior knowledge of the incident and the embattled coach, while accepting he must also change, stressed he would not resign during a press conference where he cut a distraught figure.

"We need to change how we play and within the boundaries we play," he said. "Obviously previously we've butted heads on the line but that's not the way to go about us playing cricket moving forward.

"I need to change. We need to work to earn the respect back from all our fans.

GETTY IMAGES Bancroft was spotted on camera trying to hide the yellow tape down his pants.

"The team has been received quite negatively in recent times and there is a need for us to change some of the philosophies.

"Like all of Australia, we are extremely disappointed and as a team we know we have let so many people down and for that I am truly sorry."

Former England captain Michael Vaughan also labelled the Black Caps the "benchmark" for how to play cricket.

GETTY IMAGES Lehmann has accepted things must change in the wake of the ball tampering scandal.

Lehmann is contracted with Cricket Australia (CA) until the end of the 2019 Ashes in England, which follows a World Cup in the same country that year, and CA chief executive James Sutherland is sticking by him.

"He feels some sort of personal responsibility for that," he said of Lehmann. "We all do. This is a terrible situation. We cannot have this happen again.

"There is a rebuild that needs to happen to reinstate the faith and the confidence and the pride that the Australian public had, and should have, in the Australian cricket team.

AP Smith has been sacked as captain.

"You've got to go back to the core and find out what the little things are and address them."

Sacked vice-captain Warner has been identified as the instigator of the plan to interfere with the ball by applying a substance now confirmed as sandpaper.

Smith, Warner and Bancroft are returning to Australia from South Africa where they have been embroiled in the scandal after the latter used sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball on the third day of the third test on Saturday (Sunday NZ time) between the two nations.

GALLO IMAGES And Warner as vice-captain.

Matthew Renshaw, Joe Burns and Glenn Maxwell have been called up as their replacements.

Smith has since been sacked as captain and replaced in the role by wicketkeeper/batsman Tim Paine.

South Africa won the third test by 322 runs and lead the series 2-1 ahead of the final test in Johannesburg starting on Friday.