The 'comedy of errors' behind 'heavy-handed' WBBL ban

Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive Alistair Nicholson has criticised the severity of the ban handed to WBBL player Emily Smith.

Cricket Australia imposed a one-year ban on the Hobart Hurricanes wicketkeeper, with nine months suspended, for posting a team line-up on Instagram about an hour before its official release.

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In a statement on Monday evening, CA said Smith had accepted the sanction for breaching Article 2.3.2 of the anti-corruption code which prohibits disclosing inside information to any person.

Smith will be unable to participate in any form of cricket for at least three months, ruling the 24-year-old out of the rest of this season's WBBL and WNCL competitions.

The incident occurred on November 2 with the Hurricanes scheduled to play Sydney Thunder - although the match in Burnie was washed out without a ball being bowled.

"The context is important, it's really a comedy of errors," Nicholson told SEN.

"Officials are supposed to take away the players' phones.

"You had a game here where there was rain-delay, and it was on ice, so the player had their phone when the system shouldn't have let her have it.

"It's heavy-handed but the reality is she was in a position she shouldn't have been in.

"From our point of view, whilst corruption and integrity is very important and Emily has accepted the sanction - it should have been fully suspended."

Nicholson said the extensive ban has thrown Victoria-born Smith's life upside down.

"It's certainly been a real shock for her, it's a scenario that she wasn't expecting and she's basically probably going to have to move her life back to Victoria. That's a real change," he said.