Cricket Australia’s flag remains half mast. The Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft episode has brought dark clouds of corruption over Australian cricket, which has produced legends in the past.
Their outright defeat in the third test by a 322-run margin to South Africa epitomizes their sorry state of affairs. In fact it is a sad state of recent bankruptcy of Australian cricket. It is difficult to believe that this country has produced players from the great Donald Bradman to Steven Waugh.
Yes, Bancroft tried to change the condition of the ball to get an undue advantage in the match. And he was backed by captain Smith and vice captain David Warner and may be some more members of the side.
The astonishing part of this full episode is the ease at which Smith and Bancroft
confessed their heinous crime and the delay in their stern punishment from their country as well as the ICC.
And when the Australian cricket Board suspended Smith and Warner for one year and Bancroft for nine months, some eyebrows were raised. The
ICC’s punishment of forfeiture of match fee and one-match suspension of Smith and Bancroft remains a debatable issue as ever throughout the cricketing
world!
Not only did Smith and Warner have one-year bans but their future hopes of being at the helm of affairs in the team too received a jolt. Smith on his part wouldn’t be considered for captaincy for atleast the next two years while Warner would never be considered as a potential skipper of the national side.
But this episode is a blessing in disguise. A pandora’s box has been opened- several cricketers have come forward to disclose several unethical activites in cricket in recent times. Much like the, “Me too” trend, which took social media by storm some time ago.
Let’s take a look at the Port Elizabeth Test episode between India and South Africa, way back in November 2001. Six players of Indian team were punished by ICC for different reasons. And the punishment came from match referee Mike Denness, a former England captain and virtuous cricketer of his era. The shocking allegation, in this case was raised against the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. The allegation was of a blatant effort of ball
tampering.
And what did Sachin say to match referee? “I am playing highest level of
cricket for the last 12 years. I know very well, what is right and what
is wrong”.
India was backed by the then BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya. All eyes were on Denness. He ultimately ended up becoming the villain of the episode. But an interesting part of the story was – not any true investigating team was activated to dig up the truth. Yes, the ICC took a jibe at the matter and in the end revoked the decision of one match suspension on Tendulkar. But to be honest, an impartial investigating
agency wasn’t employed by the BCCI to know the truth. Still it remains a mystery to many.
It was a matter of conjecture that the ICC and Cricket Australia took to book these perpetrator of fraudulent activities. The double standards of the global governing body of cricket has now come to the forefront.
The IPL, in this regard might be a bit worried with the bans as sponsorships are involved. So what is the need for ICC or the BCCI to make rules for stern action against deplorable activities inside the field when cricket is all about sponsorship and to earn dollars and dollars? Why so much talk about cricketing ethics then?
From 1981, instances of Trevor Chappell’s underarm bowling to Faf Du Plessis’ ball tampering in 2016-all are now a part of history. But has there been any efforts by the ICC to book those players who have brought shame to the gentleman’s game? These efforts are pretty less in number as today, cricket has turned into an institution for making money.
Those who are quick to draw several debatable or biased conclusions while playing in Australia should also know that media mogul Kerry Packer, who introduced this improved electronic media system in cricket through Channel 9, was none other than an Australian. In fact he introduced this system to bring more attraction to the game of cricket, which later turned into a way to make the sport more clean.
Yes, Australia has to bear the burden of this disgraceful incident for a long long
time to come. They might not be able to achieve the desired results against India at home later this year, because of the absence of two of their key players in Smith and Warner.
The only positive to come out of this is Cricket Australia’s bold decision making as they didn’t think twice before suspending a top-class cricketer in Smith.
But can there be any assurance that ball tampering doesn’t happen again? Maybe as long as victories would fetch a lot of wealth to a team, it would, sadly remain a part of the sport.