THE CRICKETER'S MOMENTS OF 2018: Ball-tampering overload

NED ECKERSLEY: I fear the worst crime Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner committed was that they were plying their trade for the Australian cricket team; a team past players see as the noblest of cricketing institutions

As the events at Newlands in March 2018 spread to all corners of the world it was obvious there was going to be repercussions, but the level of indignation that extended across the globe appeared contrived, bordering on vindictive. It was open season for all those who revelled in knocking high-profile stars from their golden thrones.

Here stood three international cricketers being pilloried by all who had a platform to preach. And preach they did. Politicians used them as the template for a lack of moral courage, former players described them as examples of all that is wrong with the modern game and fans claimed they had irreparably damaged the prized ‘standing’ of the famous game.

It just wasn’t cricket. Well, that’s exactly what it was, a game of cricket in which a handful of players broke the rules. It had happened before and it will happen again.

In fact, I fear the worst crime Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner committed was that they were plying their trade for the Australian cricket team; a team past players see as the noblest of cricketing institutions, a cricketing nation like no other.

The Baggy Green “is an icon and the spirit that Australians stand for”, according to former Test captain Kim Hughes. It is astonishing how quickly ex-players forget the pressures and challenges they faced when they represented their country.

^{Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith speak to the umpires at Newlands}

It was such pressures that led to Hughes’ emotional relinquishing of the captaincy, stating: “The constant speculation, criticism and innuendo by former players and sections of the media over the past 4–5 years have finally taken their toll.”

Fast-forward 34 years and one would expect some semblance of empathy from the once Australia captain. Not in this instance. Hughes was quoted on British radio as saying: “No, not on your nelly. God, no,” when asked if Smith should captain the Test team in the future.

He continued by adding: “…been 43 or 44 men that have done it and you can’t accept someone with those standards.”

This is the same Kim Hughes who led a “rebel” Australian team to South Africa in 1985 during the height of apartheid.

In short, everyone in all walks of life make mistakes and tampering with a leather cricket ball is, in the grand scheme of things, a minor aberration which is why I feel the treatment of Smith, Bancroft and Warner went too far.

Having served punishments that grossly outweighed the crime. it is time to let these supremely talented athletes repay the cricketing public by doing what they should have been doing all along. Playing cricket.