Smith will be remembered for this huge brain fade
Cricket Australia meted out the punishments but the bans imposed on their trio of test players should serve as a wake-up call to everyone in world cricket. Anyone who views this as just a balltampering issue is probably missing the point slightly.
this is more a reaction to the direction cricket in general has been going in — specifically the direction this Australian team have been going in for a little while now.
Look at some of the antics around the world, not just during Australia’s series in South Africa, where there has been on-field contact between players and altercations in stairwells. remember, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh’s players nearly came to blows recently.
this is our reality check. A time to ask whether this player- driven, win-at-all- costs mentality is the direction in which we want our great game to be moving.
this was not just ball tampering — which many sides have been involved in over the years — it went a bit further. Look at the charge sheet for evidence of that.
David Warner sat there in the Australian dressing room and showed a younger player how to sandpaper a ball — an act so cynical, so deliberate, so under-hand. For me, it was one representation of the attitude out there at the moment — we are above the law, do as we please, whatever’s best for us.
Sure, some will argue that 12 months out of the game is very harsh for a bit of ball tampering but something needed to be done about players getting carried away with their macho bulls***. too many people have been seduced by the belief that the way to play is by sledging, being aggressive and in an opponent’s face. it is not.
Steve Smith, the captain who turned a blind eye to the practice, and Warner, the instigator, will now suffer. Unfortunately, so will the game itself.
Year-long bans for two of the best cricketers in the world at the moment is not good for test match cricket when it already finds itself in a perilous state. We are already losing players to lengthening whiteball sunsets, without others needlessly sitting out tests.
Unfortunately, the reality is that these two, along with cameron Bancroft, will now be used as examples. i laughed at my Sportsmail colleague David Lloyd when he suggested red and yellow cards ought to be introduced across the board for ill- discipline because i felt our game wasn’t like that. i now see Bumble has a point. this needs stamping out.
cricket Australia have come down hard because, as their chief executive James Sutherland said in his press conference, they want a successful side that their boys and girls can be proud of. But Australia only need look across the tasman Sea for a way to play their cricket. Brendon Mccullum’s legacy has given New Zealand a highly competitive but highly respected approach and their most recent test match against england, while all this kerfuffle was happening in cape town, threw up a couple of fine examples.
two battles — one between Neil Wagner and Ben Stokes, less than 24 hours after trent Boult’s with Joe root — highlighted what test match cricket should be all about. classic confrontations. the odd word was muttered but it was good, hard, fair test match cricket by strong characters going at each other with bat and ball.
Australia are making clear that they want a change of culture. Yet the flip side is that they see Darren Lehmann as the right person to take them forward. He is the coach who created their team culture in the first place.
Not that this ends here. the cracks that have been created by this whole episode will be deep for Australian cricket and it is not only a serious loss of earnings that they will have to contend with.
if Smith and Warner do come back into that dressing room there will inevitably be looks that say ‘are you sure you didn’t know what we were doing?’ it’s going to be very difficult to reunite this Australian team in the long run.
Despite being among the first to condemn cheats, i also believe there has to be a duty of care for these guys now.
try waking up as Steve Smith for the next few mornings. it’s not just rupees from the indian Premier League he is missing out on, there is also irreversible damage to his reputation. He’s gone from the next Don Bradman to an Australian captain who will always be remembered for this one huge brain fade.
Fundamentally, i think Smith is a good guy and although he will be in a dark place for a long time, i think he can come back and continue to be a great player. Bancroft will learn from this, too, realising he was a patsy — a young lad, hanging on to his place who did what his captain and vice-captain told him to.
As for Warner? He’s had two or three chances to reinvent himself. can he do it again? if they are going to go for a cultural change, will he get another chance to adapt? that question is for 12 months’ time.