I’LL REGRET THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE
Sorry Smith begs for forgiveness ... but ex-PM calls him weak
AUSTRALIAN cricket endured one of the most tumultuous 24 hours in its history as coach Darren Lehmann resigned in tears only hours after a distraught Steve Smith admitted: ‘I’ll regret this for the rest of my life.’
Lehmann decided to quit after watching Smith and Cameron Bancroft deliver emotional press conferences on their return to Australia after being sent home following the ball-tampering controversy in South Africa.
Lehmann had been given the all-clear by Cricket Australia to carry on, despite presiding over a dressing room in which Bancroft felt emboldened to tamper with the ball during the third Test in Cape Town.
He will now leave at the end of the fourth Test, starting today in Johannesburg, with Justin Langer and Jason Gillespie among the favourites to replace him.
‘My family has copped a lot of abuse and it’s taken its toll on them,’ said Lehmann. ‘After viewing Steve and Cameron’s hurting, it’s only fair that I make this decision. I’m ultimately responsible for the culture of the team.’
Lehmann’s resignation after nearly five years in charge completed an extraordinary few hours, after Smith — his father Peter standing behind him — broke down while speaking to the media at Sydney airport.
‘To all of my team-mates, to fans of cricket all over the world, and to all Australians who are disappointed and angry, I’m sorry,’ Smith said.
‘I want to make clear that as captain of the team, I take full responsibility. I made a serious error of judgment. I’ll do everything I can to make up for my mistake, and the damage it’s caused.
‘I know I’ll regret this for the rest of my life. I’m absolutely gutted. I hope in time, I can earn back respect and forgiveness. I’m sorry and I’m absolutely devastated.’
Former Australian prime minister John Howard, meanwhile, a self-confessed ‘cricket tragic’, said: ‘There must be a way back afterwards but Smith can never be captain again. He’s too weak.’
Earlier in the day, in Perth, Bancroft cut a forlorn figure as he asked for ‘forgiveness’ and — in a formulation echoed by Smith — admitted: ‘I’ll regret this for the rest of my life.’
Asked why he had not come clean about using sandpaper in an attempt to alter the condition of the ball, he said: ‘I lied. I panicked, and I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve let everyone down in Australia and I’m not proud of that.
‘The thing that breaks my heart the most is that I’ve just given up my spot in the team to somebody for free. I had the opportunity to take control of my own values and actions and I didn’t. That’s a big embarrassment for me.’
Somerset announced they would not be employing him this summer — a move that may dissuade other counties from approaching Smith or David Warner.
Warner, who had instructed Bancroft to tamper with the ball, initially limited himself to a brief statement on Twitter. He described the cheating scandal as ‘a stain on the game we all love’, and apologised for his part in it. He later spoke briefly to journalists on arrival in Australia, and promised to say more in the days ahead.
It was notable, though, that while both Smith and Bancroft spoke at events organised by the cricket authorities, Warner was left to his own devices, facing a media scrum at Sydney airport accompanied only by his wife Candice and their two children. His days as an international sportsman are over.
To make matters worse for the game in Australia, financial group Magellan announced they were pulling out of their £11million sponsorship deal with the Test team — only eight months after signing a three-year agreement.
Magellan boss Hamish Douglass cited a ‘conspiracy by the leadership of the Australian men’s Test cricket team so inconsistent with our values that we are left with no option but to terminate our partnership’.
Smith has also lost his lucrative sponsorship deal as the face of breakfast cereal Weet-Bix and an ambassador’s role with Commonwealth Bank.
The rumpus, however, is not over. Despite the Australian team’s repeated insistence that they had never tampered with the ball before Cape Town, South African captain Faf du Plessis said his team felt something was amiss earlier in the series when the Australian fast bowlers generated reverse swing more quickly than usual.
‘It was just the nature of when the ball was reversing,’ he said. ‘Without having any evidence of it, we thought there’s no way that
the ball can go so early. It’s just unheard of for a South African series where the ball is reversing this much.’
That followed Sportsmail’s revelations that Warner had told England players he had tampered with the ball during the Ashes — a story which the Australians show no sign of investigating further.
There was a sting in the tail when Australia’s former coach, South African Mickey Arthur, slammed the environment which had allowed the cheating to occur.
‘Unfortunately, it was always going to end like this,’ he wrote on the Players Voice website. ‘Despite generational change, independent reviews and too many behavioural spotfires to list, Cricket Australia and the national team had demonstrated no real willingness or desire to improve the culture within their organisation from season to season. That could lead to only one conclusion. An explosion.
‘A deterioration of standards that would culminate in an incident so bad, so ugly, that it would shame the leaders of the organisation into taking drastic action to change the culture or risk alienating fans, sponsors, broadcasters and other stakeholders.’