Disgraced Aussie trio kicked out
AUSTRALIAN cricket supremo James Sutherland had harsh words yesterday for the trio being sent home after the ball-tampering scandal in the Cape Town Test, saying they faced “significant” sanctions, but there was one term he refused to use – “cheat”.
“I am angry and disappointed… it is not a good day for Australian cricket,” said Sutherland.
Pressed at a packed news conference, Sutherland would only say the disgraced players – captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and opening batsman Cameron Bancroft – had broken the rules.
Contrary to Australian media reports, he said, coach Darren Lehmann was not involved in the plot, hatched during the lunch break on Saturday, to scuff up the ball with a small piece of improvised sand paper.
Lehmann, a no-nonsense former player under whom Australia’s Test side has gained a reputation for pushing the limits of sporting acceptability, would continue in his position under his current contract, Cricket Australia’s CEO added.
Sutherland flew into South Africa yesterday morning to sort out the imbroglio sparked by Saturday’s incident. “It was not in the laws of the game and not in the spirit of the game.”
Smith and Warner have been stripped of their leadership positions in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal, which has shaken the sport and made a mockery of Australia’s “play hard but fair” philosophy.
The 25-year-old Bancroft was caught on camera shoving the sticky yellow tape, which he used to pick up rough granules off the pitch, into the front of his trousers when he believed he had been spotted by the umpires during the third Test.
Echoing comments from the London-based Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), guardians of the “spirit of cricket” gentleman’s code that is supposed to guide the ethos of game, Sutherland said Australia and others must take a long look in the mirror.
“Winning is important but not at the expense of the laws or the spirit of the game.”
While the four-match Test series, which South Africa lead 2-1 heading into the final Test starting on Friday, has produced sensational cricket, it has been marred by on- and off-field altercations.
Matt Renshaw, Glenn Maxwell and Joe Burns have been called up as replacements, with wicketkeeper Tim Paine, who took over the captaincy of the team on the fourth day of the Test in Cape Town, set to continue in that role.
While ball tampering is not seen as a major offence, it was the devious nature of Australia’s attempts to gain an advantage which shocked many, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Sutherland said the matter went beyond the “technical nature of the offence”, but was about the reputation of Australian cricket.
Iain Roy, the head of Cricket Australia’s integrity unit, who flew into Cape Town on Monday to begin an inquiry, was accompanied in the interviews by two ICC integrity officers.
The investigation is yet to be completed, but the preliminary findings were discussed in a telephonic board meeting held by Sutherland and the CA board yesterday, and there was enough evidence to indicate Smith, Bancroft and Warner had to be removed.
“We are contemplating significant sanctions in each case,” said Sutherland. “These sanctions would reflect the gravity with which we view what has occurred and the damage it has done to Australian cricket.”
Those could include permanently stripping Smith of the captaincy and Warner of the vice-captaincy, while all three may be suspended for a lengthy period.
Warner has emerged as the central figure in the entire affair and it is believed he concocted the scheme.
AUSTRALIAN CRICKET are still picking up the pieces, but it appears increasingly as if those fragments are the result of a ticking time bomb by the name of David Warner.
We caught a glimpse of the raging torrent that is Warner, courtesy of the CCTV footage from Durban, in an incident that now seems many moons ago. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that the lunge at Quinton de Kock could be trumped for controversy, but this ongoing series has continually found a way to make the front pages as well as the back.
Now, Warner and his mates have found a way to put it front and centre, thanks to a ball-tampering shame that will result in cricketing casualties. Already, the combative Warner is an isolated figure in a team shattered by the collective shame brought upon by a woefully misguided plan.
Already, the finger of blame is being directed towards Warner, a central figure to almost every indecorous act we have witnessed over the first three Test matches. Though the opening batsman was vice-captain by rank, those near to the team reckoned that he was the most forthright when it came to a lot of the decisions within the Australian dressing-room.
In many ways, Warner’s role in the team dynamics was the same as that on the field; get the retaliation in first, fire the first salvo.
Don’t go quietly into the night. As things stand, there is no danger that Warner and his teammates will go quietly into the next chapter of their careers.
Warner has attracted negative attention for much of his career, thanks to his outspoken nature. He cannot help himself, seemingly thriving off the feisty effects of a bit of needle in the middle. He has had verbal jousts across the world, and international rivals have long realised that the short man has an even shorter fuse.
His screaming and hollering towards Aiden Markram lit the torch-paper in the South African change-room, as they saw his action as rabble-rousing. By the time De Kock responded to a session of verbal abuse with his own personal riposte up the stairs, the respect between the teams had evaporated into the Durban breeze. That Sunday in Durban has set the tone for the rest of the series, and culminated in an inglorious Saturday at Newlands for the visitors.
It is not stretching the imagination to suggest that Warner – the regular ballshiner – suddenly being stationed on the boundary on that fateful afternoon at Newlands, complete with a team official as ‘security’, was a ploy to perhaps take the focus away from what Cameron Bancroft was naively attempting to cook up closer to the action.
Warner’s run-in with a spectator had already attracted attention, so why not create the diversion by putting him in supposed harm’s way, and let the cameras zoom in on the ‘disgraceful’ crowd that Darren Lehmann had bemoaned the night before. It was very nearly a cunning ruse, until Bancroft dithered and tried to hide the evidence when he realised the spotlight was still fixed on him. Since then, the cracks have started to show on Australia’s team culture like a day five pitch in Mumbai.
Warner has apparently left the team WhatsApp group, and guzzled champagne with mates, all while the storm rages at home and around him. He is a law unto himself, the sort of sneering star whose accomplishments are often overshadowed by the drama he inevitably attracts.
Given what they know now, you wonder just how many of his teammates would still have saved him from getting at De Kock back in Durban. A ban back then would have been a molehill, compared to the mountain of shame that they face now.