IT HURTS US ALL
Coast cricketers admit tampering scandal set to hurt local game
IT was supposed to be their weekend of triumph.
Instead, Gold Coast cricketers have been caught up in Australia’s ball-tampering controversy in South Africa.
Captain Steve Smith and deputy David Warner last night stood down for the rest of the Test match, with Tim Paine the interim skipper.
While Cricket Gold Coast (CGC) crowned their junior and senior champions at the weekend, Queens third grade premiership winner Jack Player said he was ashamed to be associated with Australia’s Test stars.
“It’s a bit embarrassing. There’s no need for it,” the Southport 20year-old said. “(Captain Smith) doesn’t deserve to get away with it.”
“You’re playing in front of TVs and there’s cameras everywhere so you’re never going to get away with doing anything,” Jack Player said.
“It’s not a good look at all, especially when your captain admits to doing it and it was planned.”
CGC cricket coordinator Greg Little said the leadership group of Smith, David Warner, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood had to be stood down from the fourth Test – and possibly beyond - to settle an example for junior players across the country.
“They have to come down hard,” Little said.
“(The impact might be) through the parents more so than the kids. The parents might say ‘Australia cheats, that’s not the game for my kid’.
“A sport like cricket where it takes so long, they’ll look for a reason not to have their kid playing it and doing something else in summer that doesn’t take as long.
“You see dips in all sports when certain things hit the news. (Cricket Australia boss) James Sutherland is genuinely concerned about this.”
Englishman Simon Belston, who steered Burleigh’s first grade team to a maiden premiership on Saturday, said the incident had further tarnished the reputation of Australian cricketers.
“I’m quite flabbergasted, to be honest,” the 30-year-old, who moved to Australia two years ago, said.
“It’s quite disgusting, isn’t it? For them to come out and do that and be clearly seen, and to see Steve Smith and Bancroft’s interview, it’s rocked the cricketing world really.
“The Aussies play that attacking, that aggressive brand (but) to come out and do what they’ve done, I think it will be a shock to a lot of people. There’s a line to cross and they certainly crossed it.”