Aussie cheats
REPORTS CRICKET AUSTRALIA are steeling themselves for damaging fallout from the ball-tampering scandal after several commercial partners yesterday expressed disquiet at being aligned with cheats.
Chief executive James Sutherland has been left in no doubt how seriously the controversy has played out with sponsors including the makers of breakfast cereal Weet-Bix.
Lead Ashes partner Magellan, Qantas, Asics, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Bupa, Specsavers, Toyota, and brewer Lion, which owns beer sponsor XXXX, have all expressed their deep “disappointment” at developments in South Africa.
As a direct result, Sutherland is expected to deliver a robust response in Johannesburg this evening with the futures of coach Darren Lehmann, bowling coach David Saker and captain Steve Smith all on the line. Admissions by Smith and batsman Cameron Bancroft that Australia deliberately cheated by roughing up the ball on a sandy piece of sticky tape during the third Test in Cape Town have created a storm Down Under.
And Smith’s insistence that coaching staff including Lehmann and Saker knew nothing of a plan, hatched by a senior group of players alone, has been met with widespread incredulity.
Former England captain Nasser Hussain insisted the Australia coach had some explaining to do. “It doesn’t look good on Lehmann either way,” said Hussain. “If he did know he’s in a heap of trouble and will not be able to hold his job down if he is condoning cheating.
“If he didn’t know then questions will be asked as to why senior players are going round not telling the coach what is going on.
“In the dressing rooms I played in it is inconceivable the coach wouldn’t know something like this is being dreamed up.”
Lehmann’s hold on his job looks weakened and if he gets his marching orders Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting are leading candidates to replace him.
For Cricket Australia the timing of the ball-tampering admissions could not be worse given they are in the middle of negotiations over the next domestic television rights deal. Only last
Friday Sutherland told potential broadcast partners to go away and come back with a better offer after their initial bid fell significantly short of the £480million five-year figure Cricket Australia thought they could secure.
If the response of other commercial partners is a guide, CA is in a vulnerable position. Sanitarium, which makes Weet-bix, sponsor of both the Australia team and Smith, called it a “shameful moment for Australian sport” yesterday, adding: “Actions taken by the team in South Africa are not aligned with our own values.” Magellan, who sponsor home series, called for “a robust and appropriate response”, while KFC, which backs the Big Bash, called for “action which protects the long term reputation of the sport”.
Talk of the betrayal of shared core values in a blizzard of moral indignation from the corporate world may privately stick in some throats
at CA. But it will not be ignored. Smith, who has been fined and banned for a Test already, moved to deflect some of the flak coming his way when standing down from the captaincy of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, set to start on April 7.
But there seems little doubt he will be on the end of some more severe punishment from CA, with a lengthy international suspension likely to be coming his way.
Former South Africa skipper Fanie de Villiers, working for the host broadcaster in Cape Town, claimed responsibility for catching Bancroft in the act.
“We said to our cameramen, ‘Go out and have a look, boys. They’re using something’,” De Villiers said. “They searched for an hour and a half until they saw something and then they started following Bancroft and they actually caught him out at the end. It’s impossible for the ball to get altered like that on wickets we knew there was grass on.”
These acts are not in line with our values