In the recent Australia-South Africa Test match, a young Australian batsman was caught tampering the cricket ball. The objective was to make it reverse-swing, and thus take an unfair advantage over the Opposition. Later Captain Steve Smith acknowledged that he had instructed Cameron Bancroft to do so and that the Aussie ‘leadership group’ was privy to this piece of cheating. As it turns out, this has been the standard operating practice since another video on ball tampering relating to Jan 2018 has surfaced.
There are some in India who think that what Smith did was a traffic offence. These are the people who say that this isn’t the first time that ball-tampering is happening; neither is it the last time it would happen. This claim is as shameless a statement as it can get. It’s like saying spot-fixing is the new normal and should, therefore, be condoned.
There are more reasons than one why Smith should go.
Deceit of any form is unwelcome, and when it happens in sports, it’s shameful. Cricketers are role models and transgressions; as grotesque as this is shocking. Further, men have been charged for far less crime. Smiths flaws are many, and he should have been sent to the cleaners the first time around when he sought the dressing room’s approval for requesting a review. How different is it from copying in an exam?
The second aspect of Smith’s saga is that he could have done it himself without using undue influence on Bancroft. Why make a callow youth a scapegoat? With that he forfeits any claim to be leader. By the way, had he taken the rap and not squealed on the
others, I would have given him higher marks.
History of being cheats…
Australia has a history of being cheats and have often gotten away with it often. Some ten years ago, in the famed Monkey-Gate Test Clarke grassed a catch and Ponting ruled to the umpire that the player was out. And Ponting the joker that he was had the nerve to ask a respected Indian journalist whether he was charging Ponting with cheating. What else was it? The sad part is that the journalists’ fraternity took it lying down without giving the then Aussie captain a piece of their mind.
If a Mohammad Amir can go for a 5-year ban for bowling a no-ball or a Sreesanth can take a life ban for bowling a single no-ball, which does nothing really to the outcome of the game, there is no reason on earth to let Smith go free. Remember Hansie Cronje, served out a life ban for accepting to fix a match. Remember, he never ended up fixing the match. And Cronje was among the most gentlemanly of men to grace the cricket ground.
Need to be ‘FIXED’
The Aussies and the Pommies get away quickly. Long years ago Tony Grieg and Peter Lever cheated in the Vaseline controversy, and the British had the gall to poke fun at Bedi’s turban.
The IPL need to forget niceties and take a firm position on the guilty Aussies. The guilty must be banned from playing in India. That is the only way they can rebuild their brand. We all know that the brand had taken a huge knocking following charges of betting and match-fixing.
Incidentally, Australia appears to be acting the right way. They are contemplating a ban and will hopefully banish him for a long time to come. And the advertisers are busy dropping Smith like a hot potato.
I hope that these men aren’t forgiven easily for this is not very different from failing the dope test.
