I can’t barrack for these cheats

IALREADY had good reasons not to barrack for the Australian cricket team. Now I know they are also cheats. Yet captain Steve Smith reckons all he need do is confess and somehow we can all move on.

“I won’t be considering stepping down,” Smith said after TV cameras at the third Test in South Africa caught batsman Cameron Bancroft using what he said was yellow sticky tape with embedded dirt to tamper with the ball, to make it swing more.

How extraordinary. Smith won’t even consider quitting despite admitting Bancroft’s illegal tampering was a plan “the leadership group knew about”, having “talked about it” at lunch as “a possible way to get an advantage”.

To sum up: a plan to cheat was discussed by the leadership group of the Australian team, approved by its captain and carried out by one of its batsmen.

To add to the shame, see how snivellingly they hid when the coaching staff sent out a warning that TV cameras at the ground had caught them.

Bancroft, in a panic, stuffed the tape down the front of his pants, and when the umpires asked what he’d been hiding in his pocket, he showed them instead a black cloth or cover for his sunglasses.

That’s some ugly culture of deceit we’ve got there. And these guys represent Australia?

How can Smith seriously think that a sorry — “we’re deeply regretful for our actions” — should cover it?

If only this didn’t actually seem part of a pattern.

Smith on Saturday was insistent: “I can promise you this is the first time it’s happened.”

But just last year, he admitted to having had a “brain fade” after being given out in the second Test against India, looking over to teammates in the players’ box to see whether he should review the verdict.

Under the laws of the game, players deciding whether to use the Decision Review System cannot get any help from off the field, where teammates and coaches can see TV screens.

Smith’s batting partner, Peter Handscomb, took the blame that time, improbably claiming he “was unaware of the rule” and saying he’d urged Smith to look over at the box.

But Indian skipper Virat Kohli insisted the Australian players had been looking over to support staff for advice on referrals for “the last three days”.

“I saw that happening two times when I was batting out there. I pointed it out to the umpires ... it has to stop,” he said. “I don’t want to mention the word (cheating), but it falls under that bracket.”

Back then, we were told it was disgraceful to even suggest Smith and his team could be cheats.

“I find the allegations questioning the integrity of Steve Smith, the Australian team and the dressing room, outrageous,” protested Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland.

“We play the game the right way,” said team coach Darren Lehmann.

Such assurances mean nothing now that Smith has admitted his whole leadership group conspired to cheat in South Africa. Questioning the integrity of Smith and his team is no longer “outrageous”.

So what does Sutherland do now? Agree with Smith that there’s no need for him to resign? Or make it clear that we take cheating so seriously that no cheat can ever captain Australia?

I know other teams also cheat. South Africa has had three charges of ball tampering upheld against it in just five years. It lost a captain, Hansie Cronje, for match-fixing.

And nothing our team has done comes close to the match-rigging and spot-betting scandals that made the Pakistani Test team infamous.

But it’s not good enough to excuse our Test team’s cheating by saying some other teams are worse.

That’s a race to the bottom, and aren’t our players supposed to represent the game’s finest traditions? Aren’t they also meant to set our children an important example of how to play the game?

Sadly, this latest scandal is not the only sign that Australia’s Test teams trash standards in their manic desperation to win.

For years, they have been notorious sledgers on the field. They are such ugly winners that I have long tended to barrack instead for the underdogs they play against.

First the sledging and now the cheating.

If Smith remains captain, I want Cricket Australia to take the “Australia” from its name and from its Test team, too.

This team may claim to play for Australia, but they’re sure not playing for me. Not like this.