Ian Chappell: The buck shouldn’t stop with ball-tampering trio
CRICKET Australia has done Steve Smith and David Warner a big favour by banishing them from the international playing field for 12 months writes IAN CHAPPELL.
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CRICKET Australia has done Steve Smith and David Warner a big favour by banishing them from the international playing field for 12 months.
Imagine if they had to face the wrath of the Australian public at cricket grounds around the country next summer.
The sound of fans venting their anger on the two senior culprits would have done little for their confidence or the image of CA.
CAPTION:
The greatest punishment for Smith and Warner will come not from the bans imposed by the ICC, CA or BCCI or even their loss of sponsorship but in simply trying to live their daily lives, burdened by the stigma of having cheated on the sporting field.
If they have a demanding conscience the public scorn will take its toll.
Warner will never captain Australia again and I don’t see any way Smith can return to a leadership role.
One of the crucial aspects of leading any team — sporting or business — is to earn the respect of those under your command.
Having displayed such poor judgment, Smith will struggle to regain the complete respect of his teammates even though he has already earned a lot of public sympathy for showing great remorse in his press conference.
Nevertheless, it’ll be extremely disappointing if Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft suffer the brunt of the punishment for their grave error of judgment.
It was obvious from the emotional press conferences on arrival in Australia that both Smith and Bancroft have now realised the enormity of their actions and their contrition was genuine.
It took a while but Darren Lehmann now understands that his position is untenable. Even though he didn’t know about the plot to tamper with the ball he has overseen an alarming plummet in the Australian side’s behavioural standards that has eventually led to the current debacle.
I’m not the right person for nominating coaches but if you must have one the extremely affable and highly successful Jason Gillespie would be my choice.
The focus should now turn to those people involved in overseeing the Australian team appointments and its behaviour; they shouldn’t escape blame or punishment.
There have been ample warning signs that should have brought a rebuke from CA’s CEO James Sutherland. Instead he chose to state publicly that the insidious on-field “banter”, which is tantamount to bullying, “was part of the game”.
He’s also responded to the current crisis by proposing yet another review. It was the ill-conceived Argus review in 2011 that has partly resulted in the Australian cricket team plumbing the depths of on-field behaviour.
That review installed an extra layer of management on a system that was already overloaded with chiefs. The current system — with an excess of support staff surrounding the team — has had the effect of forming a bubble around the players which has left them seemingly oblivious to reality.
The fact that no one in Cape Town said, “Hang on this plot is not only illegal, it’s also stupid and bound to be uncovered,” is proof enough that the bubble had reached bursting point.
The system is terminally flawed and the people responsible for its existence are culpable in this latest fiasco.
Then there’s the ICC, a flawed body if ever there was one.
The ICC has been extremely lax in allowing on-field authority to be eroded and behavioural standards worldwide to slip. After this latest incident the CEO David Richardson has belatedly suggested the ICC needs to “get tougher on player behaviour”.
How come only captains are supposed to be ahead of the game in cricket? What about the administrators being proactive for a change rather than reactive and only stepping in once disaster strikes.
As usual there’s been an outcry about poor player behaviour not meeting Spirit of Cricket standards and the common lament, “Whatever happened to the gentleman’s game?”
I’ll tell you what happened to the gentleman’s game; it never existed.
In its formative years the professional game in England revolved around pubs and gambling. Dr WG Grace, cricket’s champion of the 19th century, was reported to have put the bails back on after having been bowled. He then fixed the umpire with a glare and brazenly informed him, “There’s a strong wind blowing today” and resumed batting.
I’ve played two sports — golf and snooker — where the professionals call fouls on themselves. I’ve contested Test matches where a fielder has caught the ball on the bounce and not only appealed but also remained silent when the batsman was given out.
In cricket as in life, there are those whose moral compass is stronger than others.
If the players adhere to the laws of the game and umpires strictly enforce those laws, then the Spirit of Cricket becomes what it is: a needless display of elitism.
If there’s any sympathy left for the Australian players it should be reserved for Tim Paine, burdened with the captaincy in extreme circumstances.
As if that isn’t enough, he’s then expected to instil spirit and fight into a team totally deflated by events in Cape Town, so they can compete with a rampant South African side.
Paine did a good job in Johannesburg coaxing the best out of his depleted bowling attack. However, the really difficult task will come next summer when he’s appointed captain in his own right.
He’ll face the normal Australian expectation to win, but he’ll be without the team’s two star batsmen.
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