ROTTEN TO THE CORE...
That’s the verdict on Australian cricket... by its own review!
AusTrAlIAN cricket was yesterday left reeling after an independent review found their whole game was effectively rotten from top to bottom.
A damning 147-page report by simon longstaff of the ethics Centre decided administrators should bear as much of the blame as shamed players steve smith and david Warner for Australia’s toxic culture.
In what amounted to a visceral dissecting of a game that has badly lost its way, Cricket Australia were labelled ‘arrogant’, ‘controlling’ and accused of promoting a win-atall-costs attitude that had infected the players.
That culture came to a head in the worst way imaginable during a Test in Cape Town earlier this year when the impressionable young Cameron Bancroft took sandpaper to the ball at the behest of Warner and with smith’s knowledge.
The trio’s crude attempt at cheating led to swingeing suspensions for the players and the resignations of coach darren lehmann and CA chief executive James sutherland but chairman david peever is still desperately clinging to power.
‘The most common description of Cricket Australia is arrogant and controlling,’ said a report based on interviews with players, sponsors and other interested parties in Australian cricket. ‘The core complaint is that the organisation does not respect anyone but its own. players feel they are treated as commodities. There is a feeling among some states they are patronised while sponsors believe their value is defined solely in transactional terms. A culture of bullying ran through the organisation.’
It is powerful stuff, with longstaff comparing the ‘shame’ and even ‘grief’ the Australian public felt at the cheating of captain and vicecaptain smith and Warner with that felt after the infamous under-arm bowling of Trevor Chappell against New Zealand in 1981.
The one-year bans for smith and Warner, of course, always had more to them than just punishments for an attempt at ball-tampering. That was merely the tip of the iceberg, according to longstaff and former Australian player rick McCosker, who was in charge of the report’s investigation into the players.
It has been clear while touring Australia with the media over the last two Ashes tours just how nasty and poisonous their methods of ensuring they won at all costs had become under Michael Clarke and then smith.
It is good that Moeen Ali, for instance, revealed in his autobiography that an Australian player had called him ‘osama’ during the 2015 Ashes but a shame he waited this long to go public and, even now, will not name the man involved.
equally, Jonny Bairstow was understood to be the target of unacceptable comments during last year’s opening Ashes Test in Brisbane but no one is prepared to say publicly exactly what those remarks were.
Australian cricket needed this huge kick up the backside but whether it has the desired effect remains to be seen. even yesterday, in the aftermath of the extraordinary report, peever was trying to wriggle off the hook by defending his own position and denying any embarrassment was felt over what happened in south Africa.
And the Australian Cricketers Association even attempted to use the report to reduce the international and first-class bans of smith, Warner and Bancroft that are due to end next year.
At least peever had the decency to rule that one out, but Australian cricket will now have to decide if it can move on while still recalling smith and Warner when their bans end in April ahead of next year’s World Cup and then the Ashes.
england captain Joe root predicted that Warner in particular might face a less than warm welcome back, if and when he returns to Australian colours.
‘I’m sure he will have to accustom himself to what might be a slightly hostile environment from the english public but we will have to wait and see,’ said root.
‘potentially he’ll have learnt his lesson through the ban but that will be for everyone to make their own minds up about.’