I have spent a lot of time thinking about the recent events, particularly the ball tampering, and I keep coming back to the thought that I’m not as surprised as I should be.
I should preface this by saying I’m a cricket tragic. It is my favourable sport, and I attend the Sydney test every year. While I dreamt of playing for Australia, my actual career highlights are far more modest. The spirit was willing but the abilities were weak.
I should be shocked by the ball tampering revelations. But am I? Appalled, yes. Disappointed, incredibly. But shocked - no, or at least not enough and that is weighing heavily on my mind.
The ball tampering is forcing Australian cricket tragics like me to face the cold reality that our cricket teams behaviour has been an issue for a while. It’s not just this series, or even the last few years. It’s not just the ball tampering. In fact, the Bancroft dirty tape scratching isn’t the biggest issue - it’s the underlying win at all costs, whatever it takes, mentality that pervades the team which is causing me to think long and hard on this.
Previously, like Nathan Lyon, I wanted to believe that we pushed the line without crossing it. Like most in the Aus cricket community, I wanted to believe that, with sledging, we only gave as good as we got. Or maybe, like Steve Waugh, I wanted to believe that mental disintegration was in the spirit of the game. Threatening tail enders with broken arms, I think most of us knew that wasn’t ok even at the time. (Btw I did break my arm playing (low level) cricket as a kid from fending of repeated bouncers at my head!)
I see the comments from former Australian greats like Michael Clarke and Steve Waugh thus week and I wonder if their comments are more to protect their legacy rather than help us, the Aus cricketing nation, get to and address the underlying issues. Shame on them if that’s the case, and maybe that’s another insight into our cricketing culture.
It’s been a tough week but It feels like we are seeing the culmination of ~20 years of ever worsening behaviour by the Aus cricket team. I can understand why Steve Smith misjudged the reaction, he is comparing himself to his peers and predecessors, overseas competitors even. But he is using the wrong rulers to measure himself. Al Capone got done for tax evasion, maybe the ball tampering will prove to be our behavioural equivalent.
So who is to blame? Smith, Warner and Bancroft for sure. Penalise them severely, although Smith and Bancroft deserve a little credit for owning up to their actions. They could have denied it all and the Australian team might have taken a little bruise and just sailed on.
But more questions should be asked. Lehman can’t survive. Other players had to know or at least deliberately turned a blind eye. But what about James Sutherland? This isn’t the first time our cricket teams culture has been shown up, maybe we were all too keen to turn a blind eye. But Sutherland’s job is to have his eyes open on these issues, and I feel he has let me down as much as the others I have mentioned. It’s time to go James.