SMITH’S REPUTATION IS STAINED FOR LIFE

STEVE SMITH will presumably take his one-match ban for orchestrating Australia’s ball-tampering in Cape Town on the chin, but the long-term damage may prove harder to stomach. Just as Trevor Chappell will always be known as the man who bowled underarm to prevent New Zealand tail-ender Brian McKechnie from hitting the last ball of a one-day international for the winning six, so Smith will go down as the Australian captain who cheated. It is the epitaph of nightmares. Until Cameron Bancroft was caught out trying to alter the condition of the ball, Chappell’s act at the MCG in 1980-81 was seen as the low point of modern Australian gamesmanship. What Chappell did — under instructions from his brother Greg — was contemptible but entirely legal. Smith can’t even point to the letter of the law, let alone its spirit. A hero has fallen from grace and a nation is outraged. And Smith really was shaping up to be a hero. He scored 687 runs against England as Australia regained the Ashes and his Test average stands at an astonishing 61. Many good judges believe he is the second-best Test batsman after Don Bradman. He may yet retire with that accolade intact. But he is tainted now, a leader who forgot what it is to lead. It didn’t help his cause that, with one or two exceptions, the Australian media gave Smith’s team a free pass. Instead of calling them out for their boorishness and hypocrisy, they focused all too often on the misdemeanours of opponents. Smith grew to believe he was untouchable. How else to explain a Baldrick-like plan to tamper with the ball in plain sight of dozens of cameras? What happens next for Smith depends on Cricket Australia and their furious chief executive James Sutherland. Smith’s one-match ban is a function of the ICC’s code of conduct, but the board can take things further. And they have already been given a steer by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull who called for him to resign. Despite their love of cricket’s cut and thrust, the vast majority of Australia’s fans respect the idea that hard should also mean fair. Smith lost sight of that, with disastrous consequences. He should be preparing to square a major Test series. Instead, as he seeks to repair the damage to his reputation, he faces the fight of his life.