From heroes to villains to complete disillusionment

I REALLY do have to “thank” Steve Smith and David Warner for letting me off the leash.

In 1946 I was an 11-year-old barefoot soft-drink seller at the Gabba during the 1st Ashes Test of 1946-47.

It was really a post-war celebration and I had never seen so many people in one place, plus I also made great money for a kid.

I didn’t know much about cricket to start with but in those days I saw star players like Bradman, Hassett and Miller for Australia and Hammond, Compton and Hutton for England.

Those magnificent players received barely enough money to cover their expenses and many of them had seen active service in WWII.

Our Keith Miller had been a fighter pilot attached to the RAF in the UK. These were men of integrity to me and if something in the game was suspect, it was called as such and led to “it’s just not cricket” being commonly used by those of us in the Common Herd.

Over the years since then, I have slavishly followed the Australian cricket team for days and days of prolonged matches that were sometimes dull and boring.

But I did it because I believed in the values I saw in our players and the spectators, starting at that Gabba Test in 1946.

But the recent ball-tampering and cheating by some overpaid, avaricious and overindulged Australian cricketers has taken the flavour right out of my teddy bear and I now find it very uncomfortable to view TV ads for the upcoming cricket season.

And you can bet your boots that the two duds I previously admired will soon be eased back into the system, and I think that process has started…

Cricket is a lost cause for me. ROY GRACE BROADBEACH WATERS