Ball-tampering scandal: cricketers bring game into disrepute and shame the nation

TV footage shows Cameron Bancroft tampering with the ball in Cape Town.

Did no-one in the dressing room say: “Hey skip, this is bloody madness?”

Did no-one beg that Steve Smith reconsider deliberately breaking such a critical and sensitive rule of cricket?

Did no-one say “hey skip, we are about to bury one of our teammates?”

Even those Australian cricketers not involved directly in the match will be stained by their teammates’ desperation and blurred sense of what’s right and can we get away with it?

It appears 12th man Peter Handscomb was given the job of running on to the field in Cape Town to inform Cameron Bancroft that the jig was up. They certainly did when a frazzled Greg Chappell ordered his brother Trevor to bowl underarm to New Zealand in 1981.

Perhaps the toughest critter ever to play for Australia, Rod Marsh pleaded with Chappell to think again. That Chappell went ahead anyway and had his brother roll the ball along the pitch was embarrassing for Australia but it broke no rule of cricket then. It strangled the spirit but it was not a deliberate breach of the rules. It was not cheating.

The men representing Australia in Cape Town in this third Test against South Africa are self-proclaimed cheats. The Baggy Green Charlatans.

This earthquake of arrogance — that Australian cricketers are above the rules and principles of cricket — peaked when the players went on strike to grab more money from the game. For what purpose? Purchase endless rolls of yellow tape?

Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith admit to ball-tampering. Pic: AFP

We now find we have sent a squad of cricketers, pockets stuffed with money, tape and pitch litter, determined to stretch the game’s rules and etiquette until there is nothing left to do but cheat.

They came to a point where “the line” could no longer be pushed any further validly and without a serious breach of rules.

So senior players schemed to take action that did more than bring the game into disrepute, it has shamed our nation.

Smith, you’re gone. Now.

There must be a clean-out of the game, for this has been coming for a long time.

James Sutherland has been chief executive of Cricket Australia since 2001.

That Australian players have orchestrated such a serious breach of the rules points to this nation’s cricket officials’ inability to control their leading players.

For God’s sake, the captain was privy to this naive attempt to screw the rules.

Sutherland, you’re gone.

Darren Lehmann is the coach and he has not been implicated in this conspiratorial embarrassment.

Nonetheless he should resign or be dumped. Such is the culture within the changing room that altering the nature of the ball illegally was considered a good idea by Lehmann’s players.

Lehmann, you’re gone.

Do nothing but wag a bat and Australian cricket will continue going, going, … until it, too, is gone.