LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: To our stop story and questions remain about the extent of the ball tampering conspiracy in cricket. The scandal could not have come at a worse time for the sport and it's now facing reputational damage likely to reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Here's Tracey Holmes.

(SOUNDS OF CROWD)

SPORTS COMMENTATOR: I think they're asking about what he had in his pocket.

TRACEY HOLMES, REPORTER: They've been sent home in disgrace. But for Steve Smith, Dave Warner and Cameron Bancroft, judgement day is yet to come.

Cricket Australia is satisfied they've isolated the problem and the rest of the squad and staff are innocent. But others aren't so sure.

MIKE COWARD, CRICKET AUTHOR: The nature of the tampering of the ball, I mean it's not without precedent but what is without precedent is how calculating the whole exercise was.

It's very hard to believe that just the three of them were across it.

ED COWAN, FORMER AUSTRALIAN CRICKETER: People in their minds still think that the captain is boss, but unfortunately now there's a huge hierarchy in that team because you have a coach who is in fact in control and above him you have a high performance manager. And those two are in charge of setting the vision, the tone and the culture of the team.

TRACEY HOLMES: Ed Cowan played 18 tests for Australia and retired from first class cricket only weeks ago. He says the culture is rotten.

ED COWAN: What we've seen is the middle guy really you know get the guillotine overnight and I think if Cricket Australia are serious and they conduct this culture and behaviour review, then they need to be looking at the coach and the whole performance manager.

TRACEY HOLMES: So you're suggesting perhaps that their positions are untenable.

ED COWAN: Yeah, I have and you know, for the last couple of days I think this rests on them as much as it does the players. And don't get me wrong I'm not excusing the behaviour of the players but I think there's more to come out in terms of the actual facts and we'll get that. But if you're looking at the culture of the team, you need to be looking at the head.

SPORTS COMMENTER: There's the man cast as the villain but one feels for him in some ways.

TRACEY HOLMES: Now, the dilemma for Cricket Australia is that the value of their product is being undermined by the culture they oversee.

SPORTS COMMENTER: There is a booing and unsurprisingly some unhappy faces amongst that Australian side.

SIMON LONGSTAFF, THE ETHICS CENTRE: I think the people in the administration need to wake up and understand that they are responsible for the culture in all of those different dimensions as they are for other elements like negotiating successful broadcast rights and the many other things that are demanded upon those who administrate.

TRACEY HOLMES: Simon Longstaff has been called on by sports bodies such as the Australian Olympic Committee in times of crisis.

SIMON LONGSTAFF: If there is someone, I don't mind how talented they are, how many games they might win, if they don't have the character, the ethical kind of commitment then they shouldn't be there.

Even if it has some cost in doing so, that they should be able to undergo a form of leadership formation and development that thickens their ethical skin so that no matter how much they might be provoked by circumstances they retain their essential integrity and their moral compass.

ED COWAN: The teams culture isn't one that is befitting of the Australian cricket team. I've seen people essentially get in scraps off the field, we've seen guys give send-offs, we've seen sledging. This aggressive nature of the team that we're seeing says so much about them and then we've had this incident and it's almost the straw that has broken the camel's back.

To win back the public, to have a team that we love, we can't just suspend three players. It needs to be a complete overhaul so that the public can then reinstate their faith in this cricket team that they love so much. They want to love the Australian cricket team, and we need to give them reasons to.

TRACEY HOLMES: Cricket author Mike Coward shares the same concerns for the game.

MIKE COWARD: I don't think that the players understood the full extent of what they've done and what has happened and that is a dreadful indictment of the culture existing around the team and the lack of education within the team.

ED COWAN: Yes Steve could have said, "No that's not on in my team." But he's a young captain, he's one of the youngest captains we've had for a long time. He's naive, he's a fine batsman, but he's still finding his feet as a leader and I don't think he had the courage to stand up like he should have to the coach.

JOHN BUCHANAN, FORMER AUSTRALIAN CRICKET COACH: Whether he appreciated the gravity of the situation or not. It's still a horrendous error and that's something he's going to have to come to grips with, come to terms with. Hopefully he's going to get the right support around him to help him through that process.

TRACEY HOLMES: Former Australian coach John Buchanan has noticed the slide in team values.

JOHN BUCHANAN: I got to start my coaching career with Steven Waugh and then continue that on with Ricky Ponting. One of the things that we started and it continue through that period and a little bit after that period was the elevation of the baggy green.

And gradually that was eroded and I think the actions in South Africa are just a manifestation of some of those values and principles that sometimes are there and other times are not.

TRACEY HOLMES: Is Steve Smith to blame for this failure in leadership?

MIKE COWARD: Yes, unquestionably as captain of the side. I mean historically it's very true that in cricket particularly the captain takes responsibility. It's hard to believe that the coach Darren Lehmann wasn't involved in some way. And if he wasn't he should have been, because he should know what is going on.

ED COWAN: There is a human cost and it's huge. Make no mistake that what particularly Steve Smith is about to walk back into an Australia in a sense I feel sorry for them. And there are huge flow on effects, the public trust, and I think that's why the culture of the team has to change. This is the moment.

TRACEY HOLMES: But the implications are not just personal, with Cricket Australia in the middle of negotiating broadcast deals.

MICHAEL NARAINE, SPORTS MANAGEMENT LECTURER: The longer that the story stays in the media cycle, the longer that commercial partners will begin to question whether or not they want to remain a part, in the short term at least with Cricket Australia.

TRACEY HOLMES: Michael Naraine says this one on field incident may cost Cricket Australia hundreds of millions of dollars.

MICHAEL NARAINE: The broadcasters will go back to them with their new tenders and say, "Sorry your property is not worth what you thought it was." And they will use this incident as leverage.

Cricket Australia is probably going to be losing somewhere close to around the $250-300 million mark.

TRACEY HOLMES: Individually Smith and Warner have both lost captaincies in the lucrative Indian Premier League and sponsors are cutting them loose.

SIMON LONGSTAFF: They allowed themselves to become the face of the game, to be a role model for younger people. And the moment you put yourself in the situation then the expectation's justifiably rise.

TRACEY HOLMES: Does Steve Smith have a future?

MIKE COWARD: It may be that he just wasn't strong enough to stand up if somebody else within the group made a fateful decision. I don't know.

I can't see him ever leading again.

JOHN BUCHANAN: Yes he does, but that will, I think will totally be in his hands.

ED COWAN: The Australian cricket team we want to see winning but we also want to see winning in the right way.