Noose tightens around Warner
OPINION: Slowly, because this is cricket, the noose tightens. As it does, the wriggle room narrows.
It is apparent now that although this is a crisis for all of Australian cricket, indeed Australian sport, the locus of the problem is very much the national team.
For a long time, it has operated as its own retreat, a discreet unit within the Australian cricket landscape, and isolated from it. This is evident in the universal disgust of other players, ex-players and officials, all who are now outside the hermitage or never were in it. In that context, coach Darren Lehmann’s position – though apparently not threatened now – will remain vexed.
Only in such a cloister could a plot like this have evolved. The tampering offence itself is commonplace, with this distinction: a foreign object was used to expedite it, an object hastily tailored in the moment for the specific purpose.
But it is the plotting that is the true crime, the wilful deception, the surreptitious maneuvering, the brazenness.
As Cricket Australia chairman David Peever said in a rare offering: ‘‘This issue goes beyond the technical nature of the offences and various codes of conduct. It is about the integrity and reputation of Australian Cricket and Australian sport.’’
In a word, it is the one word
that chief executive James Sutherland refused to say, presumably on legal advice. It is cheating.
But the focus grows narrower still. CA’s investigation has refined it to three players.
Cam Bancroft had to go; he was the perpetrator. He is an innocent, but not that innocent.
Steve Smith had to go. He is the captain, upon whom all responsibility rests in cricket. That paradigm has changed shape, but not so much that this essential truth no longer applies. As details emerge, it appears possible Smith might have made some sort of misguided attempt to cover the tracks of the ingenuous Bancroft. Sutherland made passing reference to ‘‘elements of courage and leadership’’ in this. None the less, Smith is ultimately answerable. He has no choice r but
to take his medicine and his licks.
The odd man out is David Warner. He is not captain, nor did he tamper. He is vice-captain, but in cricket, that is a token position, a side-kick. He was the only other player who knew, investigators have concluded, but merely knowing is not a crime. His indictment lends weight to emerging reports that he instigated the conspiracy, put Bancroft up to his part, swept up Smith, and is now estranged in the team. He was Rasputin.
It is likely that his punishment will be harsher even than Smith’s. It is possible that his days are done. Smith, if he throws himself on the mercy of the Australian people, can still come out of this one day with dignity. Warner can’t. In the beginning, he was a symbol of what is good about Australian cricket. In this
impending end, he is symptomatic of what is rotten in the Australian cricket team.
For now, that is all we know. The noose tightens, but oh so slowly. From our outside vantage, it looks like others have slipped it. One is Lehmann. Even old teammates have their doubts, but he convinced the investigators.
The others are the bowlers. Tapegate was hatched by batsmen, but for deployment by and benefit of the bowlers. Typically, necessarily, ball-tampering is a whole-of-team project. The bowlers identify the side of the ball to be worked on, for instance, and enjoin everyone else to the cause.
Sutherland said CA would review the culture of the national team. This is overdue. For too long, it has been a law unto itself. In South Africa, it became an anarchy.