The gentleman’s game
At the heart of the balltampering controversy is the question whether cricket is anymore the gentleman’s game. For many, the fact that Steven Smith and David Warner, not just the Australian captain and vice- captain, respectively, but also easily their best and most experienced cricketers, planned to tamper with the ball as a way to win and then involved the young Cameron Bancroft as well is conclusive proof that cricket isn’t anything like what one would imagine a gentleman’s game to be.
For many others, this episode presents nothing new. It only reaffirms their belief that cricket never was a gentleman’s game, starting with some obvious question marks being put on the Australian team’s recent win in the Ashes. But more than that, people point to all the ignoble episodes that have happened in the game’s history. The easiest one to recall is that of another Australian — Trevor Chappell — who bowled the infamous underarm ball to a Kiwi batsman so that Australia would not lose the game. Others point out that numerous cricketers, especially in the recent past, have been accused and even convicted of match-fixing. In fact, many believe that ball tampering is nothing new and it is just because of the remarkably high number of cameras on the ground that bowlers are now getting caught. Still others hark back to the infamous Bodyline series, when the English decided to bowl into the bodies of the Australian batsmen, in particular Don Bradman, in order to constrain their scoring. Then there is a long list misdemeanours such as Dennis Lillee and Javed Miandad coming to blows on the cricket pitch.
Sure, this list is quite long. But there is another way to look at it — possibly a hopelessly romantic way. That this massive outrage we are witnessing around us is proof that followers of cricket, notwithstanding all the mistakes and cheating of the past, do not approve of cricket being just another sport where the only thing that counts is winning — no matter how. Think of it for a moment. Steven Smith is considered the “best since Bradman” in Australia and, even though — whether appropriate or not — the International Cricket Council gave just one-match bans to these players, the pushback from the viewers was such that the Australian Prime Minister had to come out publicly, demanding stronger action. In fact, he said something very pertinent in the context of integrity being more important than anything in cricket: “I have to say the whole nation who holds those who wear the baggy green up on a pedestal — about as high as you can get in Australia, higher than any politician that’s for sure — this is a shocking disappointment and it’s wrong and I look forward to Cricket Australia taking decisive action soon”.
Again, some can argue that this is a very Australian sentiment, that they have a sporting culture unlike any other country, that they would have done the same even if an Australian hockey player was found cheating. One can conjecture how Indians would respond, or indeed the rest of the world, if, god forbid, Virat Kohli was found cheating in a similarly flagrant manner. Some others can argue that it was the money riding on cricket in Australia that forced this reaction. It is again an open question whether too much money helps in enforcing transparency or reducing it because, in the IPL controversies of the past, we have heard that the opposite being argued. Some others argue that anger against this hard-nosed Aussie approach was building up for a while now.
Be that as it may, my own contention is that the central thing on which all the money and viewership rides in Test Cricket, at least, is the trust that it is a gentleman’s game. Take that away, and you have no product to sell. That’s why cricket has come out stronger after each such controversy. Yes, many batsmen choose not to walk, but many others still do — Joe Root just a few of days ago — and they are celebrated.
In the 2010 FIFA World Cup Luis Suarez stopped Ghana from scoring in the dying minutes of extra time by punching the ball out of the goal. He was red- carded for it but Ghana could not score the penalty and Uruguay went ahead in the tournament. No one cared. But that’s also why we don’t hear people say, “Hey, that’s not football (or any other sport)!” when exasperated at someone cheating. The thing to remember is that cricket is one of those rare sports — I would rate Rugby on a par or even higher — where integrity counts for more than winning. And that’s quintessentially gentlemanly.