Darren Lehmann breaks silence following ball tampering scandal

DARREN Lehmann has finally spoken about his team’s cheating scandal, and revealed what he wants his players to do next.

AUSTRALIAN cricket coach Darren Lehmann has broken his silence on the ball tampering scandal, saying he would “like to apologise to the Australian public” and he was worried about the emotional impact on the three players.

The embattled coach told reporters in South Africa Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft had “made a grave mistake but they are not bad people.”

“These are young men and I hope people will give them a second chance,” he said.

Lehmann said he was “embarrassed” and “disappointed" and “hurt for the game” and would change his attitude as coach.

On Steve Smith who was sacked as captain, he said “the public love him” and “we’ve lost a great young man who made a mistake.”

He also said he is worried about the trio’s mental state following fallout from the scandal.

“There is a need for us to change the way we play,” he reportedly said, adding that the way the New Zealand team plays is a “model for the game”.

“We need to work to bring the respect back from the fans.”

It comes after Cricket Australia revealed Warner was the mastermind behind the ball tampering plot, instructing Bancroft on how to carry it out. Smith was also found to have known about the plot and failed to stop it, and been guilty of misleading officials after the event.

Smith and Warner will be banned from the sport for 12 months, while Bancroft will serve a nine month ban. All three are expected to provide 100 hours of service to community cricket and Warner won’t be placed in a leadership position in future.

David Warner and coach Darren Lehmann ahead of the Ashes test. Picture: Brett Costello.

It comes Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland revealed Lehmann was asking Peter Handscomb “what the f*** is going on” on a radio chat when Bancroft was caught on camera trying to hide the sandpaper in his pants.

“I want to say that he sent a message to say, ‘What in the hell is going on’. He didn’t use hell, he used another word,” Sutherland said on Wednesday.

“That was found to be through (integrity unity chief) Iain Roy’s investigation. I want to make that point very clearly that Darren made those comments and Iain was satisfied that Darren didn’t know anything about the plan.”

Meanwhile Steve Smith was captured surrounded by security personnel and media during his departure from South Africa and was said to be “shattered” by events.

Plenty of media and security personnel were around for Steven Smith's departure from Johannesburg https://t.co/k31z2UACeu pic.twitter.com/tYo3XN455j

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) March 28, 2018

Steve Smith and David Warner have both copped historic bans for their role in the plot. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Marty MELVILLE

TOXIC CULTURE?

Lehmann was hailed as a saviour when he took over in 2013, but critics now accuse him of overseeing a toxic culture that has dented the reputation of the famed Baggy Green cap.

After being appointed, Lehmann’s response when asked to list his top three priorities was telling: “Probably win, win, win, for a start,” he told reporters.

Cricket Australia (CA) had other ideas when it gave him the job.

“Discipline, consistency of behaviour and accountability for performance are all key ingredients that need to improve,” chief executive James Sutherland said at the time.

“And we see that the head coach is ultimately responsible for that.”

If part of Lehmann’s brief was to improve the Australian team’s behaviour, there is little doubt he has failed.

Players were once considered role models for children, but the situation has become so bad that CA is setting up an independent review into the team’s conduct and culture.

Even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has weighed in to criticise the practice of sledging — taunting opponents verbally with the aim of distracting them.

“It has gotten right out of control. It should have no place,” Turnbull told reporters this week, lamenting the demise of a sport once regarded as the epitome of fair play.

Australia's coach Darren Lehmann was not found to have known about the plot. Picture: AP Photo/Themba Hadebe.

CA insists Lehmann had no prior knowledge of the plot to doctor the ball in the third Test against the Proteas.

But Australian Broadcasting Corporation senior cricket commentator Jim Maxwell said the coach had to accept some blame for an “arrogant” team culture where some players felt cheating was preferable to losing honourably.

“He’s done a very good job with the side but has a very narrow view of the way players should conduct themselves,” Maxwell said.

“Teams can no longer get away with being in the face of the opposition in the way they have in recent years.”

Lehmann became national coach in dramatic circumstances after Australia sacked the first foreigner to hold the post, Mickey Arthur, on the eve of the Ashes.

A respected former batsman who played 27 Tests and 117 one-dayers for Australia, he was seen as an antidote to the disciplinarian Arthur.

Whereas his South African predecessor asked players to provide written self assessments, Lehmann was an insider who had come through the Australian ranks.

A clue to his knockabout appeal lies in his nickname “Boof”, short for boofhead — Australian slang for an amiable prankster, one of the boys in the dressing room.

“It’s important to talk about the game whether it’s with a beer or a Diet Coke,” Lehmann said after taking the job.

James Sutherland, CEO of Cricket Australia, said Lehmann did not know about the plot. Picture: AFP PHOTO / GULSHAN KHAN

Australia lost Lehmann’s first Ashes series in charge but later in 2013, after he had stamped his mark on the team, they crushed England 5-0 in ruthless fashion.

While the plaudits rained down, there was also discomfort among some Australian fans at their team’s conduct, particularly Lehmann’s baiting of England paceman Stuart Broad.

“I hope the Australian public give it to him (Broad) right from the word go for the whole summer and I hope he cries and goes home,” he said in a taunting tone not heard before from an Australian coach.

It was a dark side Lehmann also displayed as a player in 2003, when he yelled a racial insult in the dressing room after being dismissed in a one-day international against Sri Lanka.

Under Lehmann, unsavoury antics have become common as players took the Steve Waugh-era goal of “mental disintegration” and turbocharged it with vitriol.

It has become such a part of the game-plan that before the current tour of South Africa, the Australians asked host broadcasters to turn down the stumps mic between balls so their jibes would not be recorded.

The Australians have been successful under Lehmann, with a Test record of 30 wins, 19 losses and eight draws under his stewardship.

But as Cricket Australia has belatedly acknowledged with its culture review, winning is not everything and changes are needed in the dressing room, with or without Lehmann.

— AFP

Originally published as Darren Lehmann breaks silence following ball tampering scandal