Sydney: Former Australia captain Steve Smith says he cried for four days as he tried to cope with the fallout from the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March. Smith and former Test vice-captain David Warner were handed 12-month bans by Cricket Australia (CA) after admitting a plan to tamper the ball during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

“To be honest, I probably spent four days in tears,” Smith told students at a school, according to reports. “I was really struggling mentally and I was really lucky that I had some close friends and family members that I could speak to at all hours of the day.”