Spare us sanctimonious attempts to trivialise ball tampering

IN THE opinion of Brydon Coverdale, the whole ball-tampering incident involving Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft is a mere storm in the proverbial teacup? At least, that’s what it seems like to me.

I quote from the article by Coverdale, published by ESPNcricinfo on March 26: “Balltampering does happen in cricket, probably a lot more than anyone outside the game realises. Players have been sanctioned for it before.

“In the ICC’s (International Cricket Council’s) Code of Conduct it is ranked at the same level as making an obscene gesture, and is less grave than intimidating an umpire.

“The maximum penalty is a fine and suspension for one Test, which Smith received and Bancroft did not.” Oh, well, that’s alright then. But read on…

Coverdale goes on to say: “So, why is that not the end of the story? Why was there such widespread national outrage over an incident that cricket’s governing body views as only of moderate severity? In other words, all that’s warranted is the equivalent of a severe slap on the wrist and be told, ‘Now don’t be such naughty boys in future. Carry on regardless, guys’.”

I take the view so eloquently expressed by Charles Dickens’s Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist. If I may freely paraphrase: “If cricket’s governing body views the incident as only of moderate severity, then the governing body is an ass!”

The outrage of the cricket-loving world, not to say every right-thinking individual, surely says it all.

If ever a single incident has brought Test cricket, indeed cricket in general as well as all sporting codes, into disrepute, this incident most certainly has.

Coverdale, of course, is entitled to his views, as is anyone who would comment on the issue.

Granted, it’s happened before and will no doubt happen again once the hoo-hah has died down.

But, come on chaps, this is a serious sin that has been committed here. No matter how prone we all are to breaking the rules laid down by decent society, we all expect to face the consequences, even for the most minor peccadilloes.

No wrongdoing can or should go unpunished. In the event, the perpetrators have admitted their guilt and the sentence has been handed down.

Well, no one expects that they should be drawn and quartered. But a fine and suspension for one Test? Let them face the maximum sanction that should be imposed, even up to a life ban. And let anyone who thinks otherwise formulate their own opinions.

But spare us sanctimonious attempts to trivialise the issue on the grounds that, in Coverdale’s own words, “It’s tampering, it happens. Move on.”

And, by the way, you’ve got it wrong, Coverdale, it isn’t just “national outrage”. It’s international outrage and howling for blood. Get it right. Bob Barton Pinelands