Australia captain Steve Smith has been handed a one-match ban and fined his entire match fee by the ICC for his part in a ball-tampering incident in the third Test against South Africa.

The 28-year-old confirmed that the team's "leadership group" had a plan, carried out by batsman Cameron Bancroft, to tamper with the ball to "get an advantage".

Television footage showed Bancroft take what he said was yellow tape out of his trouser pocket before rubbing the ball and then hiding the foreign object down his trousers.

Smith will now miss the fourth and final Test of the series, while Bancroft was fined 75% of his match fee and given three demerit points.

On Sunday morning, Smith and David Warner stood down as captain and vice-captain for the remainder of the third Test, with Tim Paine taking over the captaincy.

The Australians saw all 10 wickets fall in the final session on day four to lose the match by 322 runs and hand South Africa a 2-1 series lead.