This included Smith and vice-captain David Warner, who were stood down from their leadership roles on Sunday night for the remaining two days of the third Test by Cricket Australia. Wicketkeeper Tim Paine was made acting skipper. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Clarke, who retired after Australia's losing Ashes series of 2015, said he would consider returning - if asked, following the incident which he described as "disgraceful". "If I was asked by right people, then I would think about my answer," Clarke said on Channel Nine's Sports Sunday. Clarke said the ball tampering reflected a failure of leadership in Australian cricket.

"Cameron Bancroft, this is his eighth Test match," Clarke said. "I can't believe if the leadership group has made a decision to do this that they've gone and got the young kid ... as a leader you can't ask somebody to do something you're not willing to do yourself. "Steve Smith is such a lovely, lovely guy ... I really feel sorry for him. We've got the best bowling attack in the world. We don't need to cheat to beat anybody. " Clarke said it "would not be fair" for him to call for Smith to resign as captain or otherwise. "I would need to do a lot more ground work before I make that decision. But I can gurantee you this is not a good look," he said.

Test great Shane Warne said he was "very disappointed with the pictures I saw on our coverage here in Cape Town" and called on Smith and coach Darren Lehmann, fighting to retain their jobs, to "clean this mess up". Fellow Test great Adam Gilchrist said he was "really emotional" about the events which have unfolded. "Australian cricket now and the integrity of Australian cricket is the laughing stock of world sport. This clearly is against the laws of the game and we've just had our national captain and our national team admit that they sat down, premeditated and pre-planned a way to cheat," he said on Channel Ten. “I'm not sure he (Smith) can remain captain. I think it's a pretty tough position to hold after you've admitted to what you've admitted to, (to be able to) carry on with any faith from anyone watching. “We'll wait and see whether he's told, or whether he stands aside. Then that implicates the senior playing group - he spoke about the leadership group. I don't remember a designated leadership group a la Australian rules football where they name who the leadership group is – (in my day) it was pretty much coach, captain and vice-captain who were the leadership group.

“Match bans or fines, they're going to pale into insignificance if (Smith) loses the captaincy and if players get relieved of those leadership positions." The controversy has been branded one of Australia's darkest day since the 1981 under-arm incident against New Zealand. Clarke added: "We see on one of the tweets that this is as bad a day for cricket as the under-arm ball - well, the under-arm ball was legal." Former England captain Nasser Hussain said Australia's failed plan looked "terrible". “The Australian camp has been lecturing people lately on how the game should be played and a line that shouldn’t be crossed,” Hussain told Sky Sports. “Some of the stuff that has come out of the Australian camp, especially, has been laughable. Well, it looks like they’re on the wrong side of the line here. It does not look good for the image of the game.

“It looks terrible, a premeditated move to get reverse swing and a blatant attempt to ball tamper.” Michael Atherton found himself embroiled in a ball tampering scandal in 1994 when, as England captain, he was seen to have taken dirt from his pocket and rubbed it on the ball. He said the incident involving the Australians was worse because it was "premeditated". “I think what makes this more of a problem for Steve Smith is that this is a rather premeditated effort and then getting the young kid, Cameron Bancroft, to do it,” he said. “Plenty of people have been done for it in the past but this one has a slightly different smell.”

Atherton was fined at the time but retained the role amid calls for him to step down. Earlier, Clarke was among the initial outpour, pleading that the episode was "just a bad dream," as it was revealed the side's leadership group deliberately planned to cheat. Former English captain Michael Vaughan took particular issue with the fact that it was one of the side's relative newcomers tasked with the job. "Was it because someone in the team had been accused of using hand tape for a similar affect !!!!!!! So they wanted someone else to take the mantle .... Disgraceful behaviour by senior pros," he said on Twitter.