Australia’s grubby win-at-all-costs culture has been exposed, writes Robert Craddock

THE stunning demotions of Steve Smith and David Warner is just the start of a savage week of bloodletting which will leave Australian cricket wallowing in shame, writes Robert Craddock.

• SHOCK ADMISSION: Smith admits to cheating

• COMMENT: ‘Grubby win-at-all-costs culture’ exposed

• NUTS AND BOLTS: How Aussies hatched a plan to cheat

• EXPERTS REACT: Tell me this is a bad dream

• CRICKET AUSTRALIA: We must follow process first

• READERS VERDICT: Public call for Smith’s head

THE stunning demotions of Steve Smith and David Warner is just the start of a savage week of bloodletting which will leave Australian cricket wallowing in shame.

Never has Australian cricket been as angry as it is today.

Fans are irate, Cricket Australia board members are privately calling for heads to roll and at least one of Steve Smith’s senior teammates is furious with he and Warner.

Cricket Australia is facing a national revolt unless, after standing he and Warner down from the current Test, it sacks Smith as Test captain on a permanent basis.

The besieged leader faces another uprising from angry senior players.

Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith front the media after they were caught cheating. Picture: AFP Photo

The punters have spoken and they are as furious over the ball tampering incident as any event in recent cricket history.

A News Corp fan survey of almost 30,000 voices has voted 90% in favour of sacking Smith and while the fans opinion is never the deciding factor, Cricket Australia would do well not to underestimate the outrage.

According to the man in the street the Australian cricket team is on the nose. They officially stink.

Coach Darren Lehmann is also in the gun with Australia set for a major cultural shakedown.

A Special Ball Tampering Crisis Podcast with Russell Gould and Andrew Menczel going through all the fall out from the continuing ball tampering scandal engulfing the Australian Cricket Team.

Smith’s declaration that the ball tampering was sanctioned by the leadership group (Warner, Smith, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc) has reportedly infuriated at least one member of that group who insists he was not involved and will firmly make that point to Smith.

But the ball tampering affair was not a moment of madness.

It was the culmination of a grubby win-at-all-costs culture deliberately crossing the thin line between self-righteous rule bending into a world of shameless, bald face cheating.

Having teased and taunted and demeaned opposition sides for years Australia developed such a shallow respect for the spirit of the game that it decided a little bit of cheating would not go astray.

But this story has many threads, including ...

CAMERON BANCROFT

There was escalating school of thought that Bancroft was the “mule’’ in this operation, sent to do the dirty work that senior players wouldn’t do after they hatched the plan.

Don’t feel sorry for him. He is not 12 years old. There are primary school children who would be strong enough to say no to ball tampering.

He knew what he was doing just as Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir knew what he was doing when he deliberately bowled no-balls in a Test match.

Amir went to jail. Bancroft is set to be banned for one Test and his career must surely be at the crossroads.

THE COACHES

How on earth did the coaches let it get to this?

If Darren Lehmann and his staff were part of this decision they should resign.

If they were not part of the decision then you wonder what on earth do they actually do?

No matter how innocent they profess to be the coaches must take some responsibility for letting a group of players make perhaps the dumbest collective decision in the history of Australian cricket. And for the declining standards of sportsmanship in the team.

Knowing the way hand-fed players discuss things with coaches it is hard to believe the coaches did not at least get a whiff of it.

Cameron Bancroft was caught by the TV cameras. Picture: AFP Photo

DON’T THROW STONES

Back in the 1980s Australia players used to be outraged at how Pakistani bowlers used to get the ball to reverse swing.

“You have heard they use bottle tops to scratch it,’’ was the common protest.

Well, this episode is even worse because back then the world was still awakening to the reverse swing culture.

Now the rules are clearer than they were and everyone knows the difference between right and wrong, black and white. Or we thought they did.

HISTORY

Where does this rate as an historical howler?

For me, it is the most embarrassing episode since Australia fines Mark Waugh and Shane Warne for dealing with Indian bookies in the late 1990s and then kept it secret for several years.

But in many ways this one is worse.

Back then, there were no rules in place regarding bookmakers and Warne and Waugh initially had no idea what they were getting in to.

This is just cold, shameless, premeditated cheating.

Will Steve Smith survive as Australian skipper? Picture: Getty Images

THE LEADERSHIP GROUP

THIS is one of the big issues. It’s hard enough to get your head around the fact that Australia’s Test captain sanctioned a ball tampering episode.

But to think that four of five players also thought it was worth a dice roll is extraordinary.

Where was David Warner? That’s what vice-captains are for. To rescue their captains.

What about Nathan Lyon? Hazlewood?

Surely there had to be a voice of sanity saying “boys, boys, boys ... however desperate we are ... no way.’’

THE MOOD OF THE NATION

I went to a community breakfast where a speaker stood up and said “firstly, before I say anything, I would just like to apologise for the behaviour of our national cricket team.’’

People laughed. Some shook their heads.

That is what it has come to.

Our pride and joy have become a national embarrassment.

Originally published as Australia’s grubby win-at-all-costs culture has been exposed, writes Robert Craddock