Cheat! Ugly Aussie! Smith must go

Virat Kohli had stopped short of calling Australia skipper Steve Smith a cheat after the Bengaluru Test last year. “I don’t want to mention that word, it falls in that bracket. I would never do something like that on the cricket field,” Kohli had said of Smith’s illegal way of having taken help from the dressing room for DRS calls. Smith had conveniently hid behind the term “brain fade moment” and later rubbished the claims in his book.  

Now that the Aussies were caught red-handed, on camera, cheating — this time tampering with the ball — Smith’s integrity as well as his intelligence has come under immense scrutiny. How on earth did Smith & Co. think that they would get away doing this from more than a dozen high definition cameras strategically positioned to capture the action is the question on everyone’s mind.    

The call for Smith to go is universal. He, his deputy David Warner and the opening batsman Bancroft who did the actual ball tampering with yellow sticky tape laced with sandpaper roughness in his track suit bottoms must step down and face the punishment for a grave offence. The captain and vice-captain have stood down for the rest of the Newlands Test. That is a gesture, but not punishment. They have to pay the price for damaging the integrity of the game.

“How they thought they would not get caught with all the cameras at a ground these days is beyond me. It was utterly brainless, or perhaps desperation to beat the system. You probably would have got away with it in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” said former England skipper Michael Vaughan.

The unsporting behaviour of the Aussies has drawn widespread criticism with their own countrymen coming down the hardest on them. In the fallout, Smith handed over the captaincy to wicket-keeper Tim Paine when the Aussies stepped into the field on Sunday. But the damage had already been done. The stigma of being involved in one of the biggest cricket controversies will stay with Smith forever.  

Having been unforgiving in past scandals and scathing in their criticism involving ball tampering in Asia, particularly by Pakistani teams under Imran Khan, and taken the moral high ground during the betting scandal, the Aussies must pay the price now. In fact, they cheated the last time during the great betting scandal of the ‘90s when they refused to take action against Shane Warne and Mark Waugh who admitted that they took money from bookies to share information on weather, pitch, teams etc.

Cricket Australia had taken the stand that since Warne and the younger Waugh had been fined internally by the team management for their indiscretion with the Indian bookie in Sri Lanka, they could not be punished twice for the same offence. The Australians got away with the least impact from the betting scandal while South African, Indian and Pakistani cricket was thrown into turmoil with players like Salim Malik, Hansie Cronje and Azharuddin suspended from the game and never played international cricket again.

The reaction in Australia has been severe with calls for Smith and Warner’s heads coming all the way from the top, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull downwards. While Australian sports fans are worshipful of their sporting heroes, they are also quick to condemn them for failure and any dalliance with drugs and cheating to gain an advantage. The Australians are in a real soup at the moment and the very future of the top two is at stake.

Smith and Warner are also key IPL players for their teams. What happens to their contracts from the league starting very soon is a million dollar question. Of course, there are legal considerations like contracts. But if CA suspends their players involved in the tampering at Newlands, the IPL teams Hyderabad Sunrisers and Rajasthan Royals will have to make do without their star batsmen.

HOW IT UNFOLDED
During a shocking press conference after Day three of the third Test against South Africa, Steve Smith stated to have hatched a plan to cheat, and admitted to have brought “the game into disrepute” after bowler Cameron Bancroft tried to tamper with the ball.

A day after what seemed to be a dark day for cricket, and after calls from numerous cricketers and fans for Steve to be removed, Steve and David Warner have stepped down as captain and vice captain for the remainder of the Test, but will still take to the field and be part of the game under wicketkeeper Tim Paine’s captaincy. This incident raises a lot of questions — firstly about Steve’s leadership and how he let himself, his team and the whole country down.

“When ball tampering was in early stages, and when Pakistan players were accused of ball tampering, Australia and England made a huge issue out of it. Earlier, Australian players got away on a couple of occasions, but now they are at the receiving end.  Since Steve Smith confessed that the ‘leadership team’ (minus coach Darren Lehman) knew it, and that he takes the responsibility for the act, he now needs to step down as a captain not just for this Test, but for all matches. By accepting that you have committed a mistake, you need to face the consequences, and it’s time that the ICC should severely reprimand the players who are involved. There are so many ways to win a match, but you just cannot pick this way (ball tampering) and bring the game into disrepute,” says former Indian cricketer Arshad Ayub.

Cameron Bancroft

BANCROFT REGRETS HIS ACTION

Australia’s youngest player, in consultation with the other players (leadership group) and captain Steven Smith, was caught rubbing the surface of the ball with the sandpaper on the third day of the ongoing Test versus South Africa in Cape Town. “All we can say at this time in that Cameron is regretful of his actions. As he has pleaded guilty and is awaiting his punishment from the ICC, we cannot comment any further,” Oven, speaking from Australia, after consulting his client in South Africa, told this newspaper. Captain Steven Smith’s father Peter refused to comment at this stage.
Bancroft used sticky yellow tape, which had debris from the pitch, while working on the ball in an illegal attempt to scuff it. To make matters worse, the player attempted to hide the evidence when he realised umpires were suspicious. He stuffed the tape down his track suit pants, instead showing the umpires the piece of cloth in his pocket. Cameras captured it all and the match referee later formally charged him with ball tampering.
    — Bipin Dani

Darren Lehmann

Was Darren Lehmann really unaware?

Though Steve has admitted that coach Darren Lehmann was not aware of this incident, people find this hard to buy.

“My 2cents worth — This will be Darren Lehmann’s greatest test as a coach, cos I will struggle to believe that this was all Bancroft’s idea. #SandpaperGate,” said former cricketer Kevin Pietersen, to which cricketer Dale Steyn added, “Bud you know nothing in professional sport is done without the consent of your captain and coach... Tough times ahead.”

Coach R.S.R. Murthy too feels that no important decision is taken without consulting the coach. “In most team meetings, a coach is always present. There are seldom any chances of coach not being aware of something that’s being pulled by the team,” says R.S.R Murthy, who has honed the skills of many cricketers, including the Indian Women’s Cricket Team captain Mithali Raj.

As  cricket commentator and former player Mark Nicholas rightly pointed out before the start of the match on Day 4, “It is now a great test of character for Australian players.” Though an urgent probe into the matter has been launched by Cricket Australia, the team and the members have already lost fans’ respect and admiration.

Opinion

There is no doubt there has been a mistake and the players are responsible for this. The captain has accepted it, acknowledged the mistake, top management has admitted, this is not a handiwork of one or two players. It’s very sad, I would like to think it is one of great tragedies of modern cricket.

According to me, no limit could be prescribed for strict action. We do mislead, misguide kids — winning at any cost is a message that is wrong. Winning is important, but winning by fair means, is the message we must spread.
    — Bishen Singh Bedi

Balwinder Sandhu, former Indian test cricketer

Incidents like these are definitely bad for the game. As far as Steve Smith owning up to the incident goes, I don’t think we as viewers and sport enthusiasts can say anything about him stepping down as captain — that is up to the Cricket Australia to decide.
It’s common knowledge now that cricket these days favours the batsmen more than the bowlers. But that doesn’t mean we should permit tampering of the wear and tear of the ball from the fielding team. Instead, why not make pitches that are friendlier to bowlers instead?

CM Gautam, first-class circketer from Karnataka

Whatever happened with Steve Smith is unacceptable. You cannot use an object or an instrument to tamper with the ball. It is JUST not done. And it is not good for a game referred to as a gentleman’s game. Yes, people use their saliva, or even toffee-laced spit to shine the ball, but apart from saliva, anything else is not allowed. I saw the incident, it was quite evident that sandpaper was clearly being used. This also only happens in Test cricket which is slower, which gives the bowler enough time to go back to his run up. It rarely happens in the IPL, as there are only 85 minutes to complete and it’s very fast moving, so there is no time.