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Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) is hopeful that the Kagiso Rabada drama of the past 10 days will force an ICC rethink in terms of the implementation of its Code of Conduct.
Rabada was suspended for two Test matches after ICC match referee Jeff Crowe found him guilty of a Level 2 offence in the second Test against Australia in Port Elizabeth.
The three demerit points that came with that sanction pushed Rabada over a total of eight demerit points in the past 24 months, and as a result he was suspended.
But, after appealing that finding, CSA emerged victorious on Tuesday when the sanction was lessened to a Level 1 offence.
That leaves Rabada on a total of seven demerit points - he accepted one for his send-off of David Warner in PE - and he is now able to play in Cape Town in the third Test starting on Thursday.
CSA was obviously delighted by the outcome, but Proteas team manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee hopes that the whole issue will bring about some change in the way such cases are handled.
"There were definitely key learnings for everyone and I think it will stimulate healthy debate and it might even allow for people to sit around a table," Moosajee said from Newlands on Tuesday.
"The ICC are the custodians of the game and we may have to look at things around processes, independent judicial commissions, words in the Code of Conduct manual ... those are the kinds of debates that could take place and we as South Africa will be happy to contribute to that."
Mossajee highlighted that South Africa had previously voiced their concerns to the ICC around inconsistent implementation of its own Code of Conduct.
"We have raised issues in the past around, not the Code of Conduct, but the inconsistent application of the Code of Conduct. In this case it wasn't particularly raised but it has been raised prior to this case," he said.
Moosajee acknowledged that Rabada needed to work on his on-field emotions moving forward.
"We believe that KG never deliberately charged Steven Smith with his shoulder. We do understand, though, that KG is quite a fiery character on the field, but there are rules and regulations that govern the conduct on the field," he said.
"Like every other player, this applies to KG as well and he is well aware of it. He's the first to admit that he must take better responsibility and better handle his positive and aggressive celebration and not get careless nor be disrespectful."
"At the same time, we will always support our players in situations like these where we believe that the code of conduct has been unfairly enforced upon us."
