Steve Smith can be redeemed if he makes the right moves

STEVE SMITH’s next step on the road to redemption should be to dispatch the latest press release from his players union into his rubbish bin, writes Robert Craddock.

Dumped Australian captain Steve Smith is comforted by his father Peter at the press conference at Sydney airport on Thursday night.

STEVE SMITH’s next step on the road to redemption should be to dispatch the latest press release from his players union into his rubbish bin.

It came from the Australian Cricketers Association and it dropped into his inbox just before he landed home on from South Africa on Friday night.

It questioned the “glaring and clear anomalies’’ in the one-year bans handed to Smith, Warner and the nine month ban to Cameron Bancroft for ball tampering, pointing out they were “considerably higher’’ than the International Cricket Council’s penalties for the same offence.

CRADDOCK: Warner tell the full story

ANALYSIS: Smith pushes through pain barrier

LEHMANN: The moment that forced him out

VACANCY: The candidates for Lehmann’s role

WARNER: ‘I apologise for my part’

If ever there was a case for a release being factually correct but missing the mood this was it.

Smith got one match from the ICC for ball tampering and one year from his country and his supporters were suggesting he should appeal the sentence because of the disparity between the two sentences.

Dumped Australian captain Steve Smith is comforted by his father Peter at the press conference at Sydney airport on Thursday night.

Legal eagles tell us he would probably win the case but his true friends are urging him to keep his gun in the holster.

Whatever Smith does over the next year one thing is certain. He should not appeal.

Even if he won the case and got a reduced penalty it would be a bad result for Smith. Now is the time for humility not hubris, contrition not attrition.

In a stunning change of public opinion, Smith has gone from being a figure of abject derision a week ago to one receiving sincere pity from a public who grieved with him when he wept the tears of a shattered man before the cameras in Sydney on Friday night.

Smith put his bleeding heart on the table and let the red stuff pour out in front of a nation who bled with him.

All that would be swept away if he appealed his sentence.

You cannot grieve like that, admit your sins, almost beg for forgiveness then say “I was harshly treated and here is why.’’

Steve Smith on Thursday night.

Soon after the press conference Smith headed off abroad for a holiday in Dubai to get away from it all and think about his future.

As chilling and chastening as it was for him to be part of the scandal there is vast room for him to rehabilitate his reputation.

He is planning to play grade cricket in Sydney during his absence and what a moment that will be when he takes on some up and coming fast bowlers baying for their tilt at the champ.

If he accepts the ban and does not appeal he will enter a foreign world.

Smith left school at 16 and has spent his whole life in the cricket bubble. He likes a punt, owns a few horses, loves Roger Federer and going out to dinner.

And that is about it.

He is a cricket tragic as well as suddenly being a cricketer with a tragic story.

History tells us there can be redemption if he makes the right moves.

Mark Waugh was fined for taking money from an Indian bookmaker but is now a national selectors and a recently-admitted member to Australian cricket’s Hall of Fame.

Steve Smith can recover from the ball tampering scandal and rebuild his career.

A few years ago no-one was talking to media star and former Melbourne Demons AFL identity Garry Lyon after he had an affair with great mate Billy Brownless’s wife.

Suddenly he is everywhere on the media landscape. A Fox Footy commercial in which a large group of players shout “nice Garry’’ is a central promotional vehicle for the channel this season.

Time will heal Smith’s wounds. Yes there will be scar tissue, but the bleeding will stop and the raw wounds will close.

The Australian side that Warner, Smith and Bancroft will leave behind will be remodelled in style and substance.

A new coach — probably Justin Langer or Jason Gillespie — will implement higher standards of behaviour and be held to them by a public who has had enough of the grubby sideshows.

Given the dominance of Smith and Warner as batsmen over the last few years their absence will leave the side the a bit like the Beatles without Lennon and McCartney.

But the challenge, while daunting, is also stimulating.

Players like Matt Renshaw, Joe Burns and Glenn Maxwell, who were rushed to South Africa for the current Test at Johannesburg, have the chance to resurrect their careers.

All of them are fine redemption stories.

Renshaw was sacked from the Test team at the start of the season but took up the challenge, lost weight, smartened himself up and returns a better player than he was.

Maxwell has at times been seen as the bad boy but given the notoriety of the ball tampering scandal is suddenly looking as well meaning as the Easter Bunny.

This is his chance. Three men’s folly has become three men’s open door.

Australia all at once are vulnerable, downcast, intrigued, nervous and hopeful.

There’s saying in business that you should never waste a crisis.

And crises don’t come much bigger than this.