‘Cricket ban on Steve Smith and David Warner should be lifted’
IT’S been a long seven months in exile for cricketing trio Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft following the ball tampering scandal — and it’s enough. Cricket Australia needs to ditch the ban, Jessica Halloran writes. TAKE OUR POLL.
Cricket
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cricket. Followed categories will be added to My News.
IT’S time to bring back Steve Smith and David Warner. Bring back Cameron Bancroft, too.
It’s been seven long months in exile for the trio — and it’s enough. Cricket Australia needs to ditch the ban.
As Shane Warne pointed out last week, their time in cricket purgatory has been costly for two of our best batsmen.
Warne suggested that Smith’s 12-month ban will equate to an $8 million fine.
On calculation of Warner’s contracts and sponsorships, it tallies to about an $8 million fine for him, too.
Most fair-minded fans would say enough is enough. These hefty million-dollar penalties, months on months out of the game, an epic public shaming; add it all up and it really is enough.
And, on reflection, the outrage aimed at the trio’s involvement in Sandpapergate was ridiculously excessive.
If only we had some of that public rage directed at issues that really matter; such as, I don’t know, that 11 women were murdered within 22 days this month.
Sure, these men failed sports fans by cheating in a game of cricket but, after a little time, they fronted up to own their mistakes publicly.
They wept. They said “sorry” to us over and over.
They are doing their community service. They have played in a far-flung tournament in Canada, the Caribbean, Northern Territory, and back home in grade cricket to keep up their form in the hope they can play for Australia again.
It can’t be forgotten they’ve suffered terribly mentally and emotionally for their part in this very public scandal. They are trying to move on.
And we all need to move on, too.
But while these cricketers have been publicly roasted, shamed, shamed some more, painted as villainous men at worst, the Cricket Australia administrators have escaped any fallout from a bad culture they helped create.
MORE FROM JESSICA HALLORAN
ANDREW BOGUT TAKES SHOTS AT HIS CRITICS
SYDNEY SWANS CEO IS THE CLUB’S BEST EVER RECRUIT
Former Australian chairman of selectors Rod Marsh summed it up perfectly as a “win, win, win, win, win at all costs” culture.
There are now suggestions there are members of the Australian hierarchy — not former coach Darren Lehmann — who were pushing for the Australian side to get the ball to reverse swing way before Sandpapergate in South Africa.
That’s no surprise if you pick up Marsh’s new book, in which he said ball tampering has been “happening forever” and everyone knows about it.
Sure, that doesn’t make it right, but the question must be asked: why has not a single Cricket Australia administrator’s head rolled because of this scandal? Why has no one’s pay been docked?
Why have the men who oversaw this “win at all costs” culture stayed comfortable in their jobs while three cricket-playing “bad boys” have been banished?
Instead, we see administrators staying in the game or announcing their exit on their terms. Last week, Cricket Australia’s head of high performance Pat Howard said he’ll see out a contract until after the Ashes next year.
Chief executive James Sutherland also happily handed over his duties to the executive who had a nearby office, Kevin Roberts.
Roberts was the man who, when first appointed to the CA executive in 2015, was responsible for overseeing “people and culture”. Meanwhile, chairman David Peever was voted in for a second term.
And then there’s David Saker, still in the job, despite the fact he was the bowling coach when the most scandalous episode of ball tampering in the history of the game occurred.
How?
There are real question marks around the investigation into Sandpapergate.
Geoff Lemon’s new book Steve Smith’s Men reveals “there was an urgency to release findings, but an investigation could have continued after preliminaries. It was either a huge oversight or a convenient omission”.
Not a single bowler was interviewed. It makes no sense.
Tomorrow, two reviews into Cricket Australia culture are due to come out. There’ll be some “heat” on the hierarchy according to CA board member Mark Taylor yet, with everyone in the office sitting pretty, it’s hard to imagine what the actual repercussions will be.
Seven months on, the handling of the Sandpapergate scandal reeks of injustice. Three cricketers sit shamefully on the sidelines.
No one at the top of the game has paid for their leadership failures.
It’s time to let these three men back out to play.