This? In our land of Gilchrist and The Don?

By Shashi Narasimhiah 

The cricket world is in a state of shock after learning of the concerted, orchestrated and deliberate cheating episode.

At Cape Town on the third day during the post lunch session of the third cricket test, cameras caught Smith’s young teammate Cameron Bancroft taking a yellow object from his pocket and applying it on the ball. The umpires were quick to intervene. It was later established that the yellow object was a sticky tape  and was used to pick up hard granules from the pitch while fielding and then rub it on the ball to create some rough to generate reverse swing. In addition, the act of Cameron Bancroft rubbing the ball and then putting the yellow tape in his pocket after rubbing it against the ball and then trying to hide the foreign object inside his pants were all captured on the camera. Finally the cricketing world heard the Australian Cricket Captain Steve Smith admit that they sat down, premeditated, pre-planned and implemented a way to cheat!!

Back in March 2017 during the Bengaluru test when Virat Kohli screamed at his Aussie counterpart Steve Smith when he looked up at the dressing room in an attempt to check with them on a DRS call, we all wondered whether Virat Kohli was overreacting – especially when Steve Smith defended it as a “brain fade” and attributed it to lack of familiarity with the DRS. No sanctions were imposed. At the time, Australia’s integrity was vehemently defended by the team coach Darren Lehmann and Cricket Australia Coach James Sutherland.

Now after the cheating episode in Cape Town, Former Indian ace spinner and commentator L Shivaramakrishnan didn’t waste any time in saying “Virat was smart on the field and he saw what Steve was doing during the Test series. Today his accusations are proven right. Now that Smith is caught, it proves to show that he may have done something in the past as well in India, if not ball tampering”

To be fair to Smith and his mates, accusations (repeat accusations only) of ball tampering is nothing new in the world of international cricket. We have known many international cricketers being (at least) accused of ball tampering after the relatively recent introduction of cameras on the field. We will never know what used to happen before. Having said that though we have rarely come across a situation where such a concerted plan has been hatched which included and involved some of the top players in world cricket. Unfortunately, we all tend to “extrapolate” this incident and wonder for how long such cheating is happening and what might be the extent of such cheating in the past? Personally for Steve Smith, he was on top of the cricketing world – currently the best batsman, his wicket – a cherished prize to any bowler. He came across as a moderate, as someone mature enough to have reigned in the culture of loud-mouth and vulgar sledging. When at the end of the test match at Dharmashala in 2017 he openly apologised to the crowd in India for their on-field behaviour, we all thought he had come of age as a player and captain and we even went to the extent of dreaming that he had brought in fresh and fragrant breeze of change in the world of cricket, that he had established a new legacy and that cricket could once again become a “Gentleman’s Game”. But who would have thought that we were dreaming far too early and that any such dream was short lived?

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was visibly distraught and looked sad when he said, “We all woke up this morning shocked and bitterly disappointed by the news from South Africa. It seemed completely beyond belief that the Australian cricket team had been involved in cheating”. He later added “After all our cricketers are role models and cricket is synonymous with fair play”.

Many former international cricketers had much to say but the pick of all was from Adam Gichrist who stated:  “Integrity of Australian Cricket is the laughing stock of the world sport. We are very quick to damn nations that cheat any way or go beyond the rules”

Michael Clarke thought “this is a bad dream” until the reality struck him.

Graeme Smith said, “To actually take a foreign object to rough up the side – I’ve never heard or seen anything like that before in my life”.

Mike Atherton who was fined in 1994 for using dirt in his pocket said Steve Smith should be “reconsidering his position as captain”.

Nasser Hussain, the former England captain was less charitable when he stated: “Australian camp has been lecturing people over the last few months on how the game should be played, and a line that shouldn’t be crossed. Well, it looks like that Australian hierarchy are on the wrong side of the line here”.

Our own former India Captain and ace left arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi said: “One of modern day cricket’s great tragedies”.

The cricketing fraternity will find it hard to believe that this is not a “bad dream” and Steve Smith is already paying a big price for his misadventure. He has lost his place in a test match and in IPL with possibilities of more such losses to follow. One cannot help feeling bad for him. He seemed like such a gentleman!! Well, so did Hansie Cronje, remember? For Australia this might be the worst cricket crisis since the “underarm incident” of 1981. Both incidents although very different, at different times with different players of a different era – we can spot one common motive – Win at any cost. And the day is being dubbed in Australia as a “National day of Shame”. Is it time for players and the crowds to grow up and treat a game as a game not a war? If ever there was anything from this episode which was could even remotely be termed positive, it is the fact that the captain had the courage to face up to the world and own up the responsibility for this instead of blaming it all on a scapegoat out within their ranks.