Lehmann got so caught up in the win-at-all-costs bubble, he lost his way
IF WATCHING Steve Smith break down in tears yesterday proved difficult viewing for me — and it did — imagine how incredibly hard it would have been for Darren Lehmann in Johannesburg.
One of the first things Duncan Fletcher stressed to me when we were paired as captain and coach of England was that the most important aspect in our relationship was loyalty.
I can only imagine how rocked Lehmann would have been by seeing his captain on the other side of the world in that kind of state. The honourable man I know — and I can only speak as I find — would not have been able to carry on at that point as if nothing had happened. By his own admission, it wasn’t the sole reason for his resignation as Australian coach but it was a major one.
Now I have to confess it has not been easy to be critical of Lehmann as I have been in print these last few days because in my dealings with him — I played against him, I’ve worked with him as a commentator and worked as a commentator while he’s been Australia coach — I have to say he’s been a genuinely pleasant, time-for-everyone sort of guy.
He had his perspective on life altered by the tragic death of David Hookes, his dear friend and mentor, following an altercation with a bouncer outside a pub in 2004. Lehmann later said: ‘ It changed my attitude. I realised cricket was a game and life was more important.’
He also recalled yesterday that dealing with the death of Phillip Hughes in 2014 was the proudest moment in his five-year tenure as Australia coach. It reinforced the only-a-game philosophy he began the job with. The anomaly here is that he seemed to move away from that philosophy. He got so wrapped up in the bubble — and, like many other cricketers, I have been there myself — of striving too hard to achieve. Of every decision made being about winning.
Contrast that to how Lehmann was earlier in his period as coach, when he would sit on the balcony during play at Lord’s listening to
Sportsmail’s own Bumble on the Sky Sports commentary through his earpiece, acknowledging him with a thumbs-up. That was a period in which he clearly did have that balance right.
But, as I said yesterday, he has also been responsible for the Australian culture that now so needs changing. He needed to take responsibility for that and in moving on he has allowed someone else to oversee that change.
I repeat, from my dealings with him he is an honourable man and he probably looked across at Smith and Cameron Bancroft fronting up to the TV cameras and asked himself: how can I possibly stay in my job while this is happening? The coach’s loyalty gene kicked in. I reckon those tears gave him back some of that missing perspective. And while we are on that subject I reckon we could all do with some.
Yes, our game is in desperate need of cleaning up its act. But don’t confuse me with someone who wants 22 goody two- shoes going out on a cricket field. Society has good guys and bad guys in it and cricket shouldn’t be, and isn’t, any different.
The Australian team game in particular needs some regulation, and it is unfortunate that it needed something as drastic as 12-month and nine-month bans to make it clear that enough is enough. Administrators have to take some responsibility, though, because they have let it drift for far too long. They have let these antics go on and for teams to play with this win-at-all-costs attitude.
And it ended with scenes of Steve Smith walking through airport terminals like a criminal. What a mess. He is not a criminal. He has made a mistake. Which of us hasn’t done that? In that regard I do have some sympathy for the bloke.
What I liked about his Sydney press conference and the one given in Perth by Bancroft was that there was no attempt at any stage to pass the buck on to anyone else. They held their hands up and said: this was down to me.
If one good thing can come out of this whole sorry mess it will be that future generations of cricketers realise, as Smith did in such dramatic circumstances yesterday, that in the end you are not just judged on your statistics but how you played the game.