Australia’s TV savvy backfires as scores are settled
Television is not just the key witness but judge and jury in the ball-tampering scandal, writes Alan Tyers
ricket, like most sports, has been changed by television, and arguably ruined by it as well.
The relentless fixture scheduling with concern for neither the wellbeing of players nor spectator ennui is not particular to what we once thought of as the national summer game, but cricket is impacted by television more than most. TV technology helps with umpire decisions, microphones police behaviour, and its zoom lenses and slow-motion catch out the cheats.
Those juicy television deals have made rich men of the likes of Steve Smith and David Warner, but their behaviour, ultimately, could not stand up to TV’S scrutiny.
Australia’s players had grown savvy in using the stump microphones to set the coverage agenda when Cameron Bancroft repeatedly mentioned Jonny Bairstow’s oddball but harmless headbutt, knowing that it would be picked up by the media. How clever Bancroft thought himself in that press conference a few months ago as he skewered Bairstow; what a fool he looks now, twisting in the wind like drifting litter hooked on a satellite dish.
As Sky’s Bob Willis said yesterday: “How did Bancroft possibly believe he was not going to get caught? It’s like shoplifting from a supermarket with 36 CCTV cameras.” And Bob, as always, was pinpoint with his righteous scorn.
Television was not just the key witness, it was also the judge and jury, thanks to yesterday’s Sky Sports parade of players and ex-players. Stuart Broad, precise and deadly with his interview technique as he once was with that seam position, noted “how Australia always managed to get the ball reversing in the Ashes” and “didn’t see why they would have adopted a new method just for this Test”.
Given that Darren Lehmann once encouraged Australian crowds to send Broad home in tears, it must have been a satisfying day for the bowler.
Not so for James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s top banana, who appeared genuinely mortified, before making tantalising reference to what will surely be the breakout comedy act of the season: a full inquiry to be headed up by “Cricket Australia head of integrity Ian Roy”. If W1A can spare him, this is going to be unmissable, once Ian finds his office.
David Lloyd said: “It is not about ball-tampering, it is about the fact that this Australian team are out of control.” Lloyd thought that Smith should depart as captain, and found it “very hard to believe” that Lehmann did not know the score.
Rob Key spoke for many: “I am fed up with the Australian holierthan-thou attitude; they have taken a view on everything. I have just had enough of Steve Smith.”
Mike Atherton was of a similar mind: “There is very limited sympathy around cricket for this Australian team.”
I was reminded of his erstwhile Sky colleagues Andy Gray and Richard Keys, who looked like they might conceivably weather the Sian Massey sexism storm when, hey presto, further archive clips “came to light”. There is a certain concrete quality to things recorded on tape, especially when people are already thoroughly sick of you.
Rather as with Test cricket, one often hears that television is a dying medium, that everything vital these days is all Twit-this and Snap-that and experiencing virtual reality on your electric toothbrush. But if you want a good old-fashioned scandal, getting caught doing something on live TV still works as well as anything, and there is an undeniable heft to the undeniability. Something for The Leadership Group to ponder before they embark upon their next masterplan.
‘Bancroft’s act was like shoplifting from a supermarket with 36 CCTV cameras’