AFP, DUBLIN: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday unveiled tougher sanctions for ball tampering and sledging in a bid to improve on-field behaviour in the sport.

The changes come in the wake of a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March that saw Steve Smith stripped of the Australian captaincy and suspended from international and domestic cricket for a year. Teammates David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were also banned.

“It is vital that there is a strong deterrent to both players and administrators to ensure we have high standards of conduct in our game. We have more than a billion fans and we must not give any of them any reason to doubt the high levels of integrity within our sport,” said ICC chairman Shashank Manohar.

Changes to the ICC's code of conduct included the introduction of a raft of tougher sanctions, to be introduced later this year, for cheating (other than ball-tampering), personal abuse, audible obscenity, disobeying an umpire's instructions, and changing the condition of the ball, the Dubai-based governing body said.

Ball tampering will now be considered a level-three offence, for which the maximum sanction is 12 suspension points, the equivalent to six Test matches or 12 one-day internationals.