OPINION Get back to playing cricket

THE WARNING signs were there after the first Test in Durban when David Warner hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, that the series might degenerate into a fiasco, and that it has.

The series further turned into a soap opera after the second Test when Kagiso Rabada was initially suspended after a rather innocuous shoulder brush with Australian captain Steve Smith.

His suspension was overturned and the circus rolled into Cape Town for the third Test.

The fur started flying on day one when Australian bowler Pat Cummins stepped on the ball for an inordinate length of time. South Africa were around 220/2. Soon after that, they were 257/8. Cummins coincidentally picking up four of those wickets that fell. That incident was soon overshadowed by, first, Warner having a set-to with a spectator as he left the field, then coach Darren Lehmann stepped into the fray, blasting the South African spectators as a “disgrace”.

And just when you thought the series couldn’t get more puerile and farcical, the new villain of the piece, Cameron Bancroft, who up until then had had a relatively quiet series averaging 37 with a high score of 77, upped the high jinx ante.

His attempts to alter the state of the ball with a piece of tape and gravel from the pitch was picked up by television cameramen and after some naughty schoolboy-like attempts to cover it up, the series plumbed to new depths.

All this while some fantastic cricket was being played. Dean Elgar’s gritty 141 not out in the first innings was a remarkable test of patience and application and AB de Villiers’ swift cameo of 64 was entertaining as always. Warner and Bancroft made a solid start, but some fine bowling from Rabada and Morne Morkel with four wickets apiece swept aside any Australian resistance.

Morkel had the added satisfaction of reaching 300 Test wickets.

In the second innings, South Africa batted well as a unit to reach 373 and set the Australian

429 to win. Because of the Bancroft ball-tampering debacle, Nathan Lyon reached his 300th Test wicket largely unnoticed, another cricketing achievement overshadowed by ego-driven sideshows.

Morkel came storming back in the second innings taking five wickets to help the Proteas claim the match and a 2-1 lead in the series.

To Cricket Australia’s credit, they have acted strongly and swiftly.

This latest incident and the fallout that has followed, will surely jolt any would-be rule-benders out of pushing the envelope any further.

Now fans can hopefully look forward to cricket making the headlines in the upcoming fourth Test at the Wanderers.

READER COMPLAINTS