SIMON HUGHES: Darren Lehmann might look like a rogue but he knows right from wrong. He surely would have talked Smith and Warner out of their ball-tampering plans if he had been consulted
There cannot be a lot of trust between a captain and a coach if the former is doing something on the field without the latter’s knowledge.
The captain runs the team but the coach is a filter through which all ideas and plans are fed. If they are not, there seems little point in him being there. Batting, bowling and fielding coaches take care of individual player’s requirements, plus sundry other trainers and physios. The head coach is responsible, with the captain, for overall strategy.
Yet the initial investigations into the ball-tampering scandal have revealed that Darren Lehmann was unaware of the plan to get Cameron Bancroft to scratch the ball. This tells you two things.
One, there is not a close relationship between Steve Smith and Lehmann. Two, the reason the ‘leadership group’ - which tuns out to be just Smith and David Warner - didn’t mention the idea to Lehmann is because they knew he wouldn’t approve. That should have told them something. But they didn’t listen.
Darren Lehmann has been cleared of involvement in the ball-tampering episode
That, in many ways then, was Smith’s biggest mistake. Lehmann, for all the vitriol thrown at him on Twitter, is a decent, down-to-earth man. He treasures his job, always puts the players best interests at heart and is generally a happy-go-lucky, approachable chap.
He willingly fronts up to the media on difficult days for his team and answers questions genuinely and honestly. He spent several years playing and coaching at Yorkshire and the players adored him for his mateyness and old school approach.
He likes a fag and a pint and a chin wag.
He might look like a rogue and he has, it is true, presided over an increasingly abrasive Australian team culture, trying to make opponents feel as uncomfortable as possible on the field. But he also knows right from wrong.
He surely would have talked Smith and Warner out of their ball-tampering plans if he had been consulted.
Lehmann is still head coach for now, although he may not ultimately survive the hysteria about the team raging all over Australia. He is a strong character, though, and will undoubtedly find another role.
You worry now more for Smith. He looked distraught as he waited at check-in at Cape Town airport and if you consider how his life has changed in two days after one moment of madness, you can see why.
Steve Smith is pictured at Cape Town airport
Since that crass decision to approve illegal scratching of the ball he has been stripped of the Australian captaincy and sent home in disgrace, will not play for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL and has now been given a 12-month ban.
His loss of income will be only slightly less severe than his huge loss of face. He is just a simple cricketer who has worked incredibly hard on his game to become the best Test batsman in the world.
He did not really have the leadership credentials when he was thrust into the job aged 25, standing in for the injured Michael Clarke.
And now his life is in ruins and he is vilified for bringing shame and disgrace on his country.
He needs help and support from now on, not abuse.
Posted by Ruth Ramsden on 29/03/2018 at 17:53
Perhaps what the Australian team needed wasn't a chummy coach who'd sit down and have a beer with 'the lads' but someone who'd impress them with some discipline and decent values? The atmosphere has been poisonous for some time and the shame of it is it's taken down a player of the calibre of Smith, who has found out the hard way that the Aussie team actually crossed that mythical 'Line' a while back. The reality check must be shocking but CA should take this opportunity to rebuild a strong team that offers no place for the kind of childish hooliganism that's been putting off cricket fans for quite some time.
Posted by Edward on 29/03/2018 at 07:57
Credibility as “The Analyst” hardly enhanced by this naive thinking.
Posted by Tom on 28/03/2018 at 11:38
Simon, you have been totally immersed in this stuff for the last four days. You need to take a break, clear your head and come back with an admission that your defence of Lehman is ridiculous
Posted by Eric Foggitt on 28/03/2018 at 11:36
This is simply wrong. Without wanting to vilify Lehmann, under his leadership the Australian cricket team have become loutish, arrogant and loud. Lehmann also clearly sent out the 12th man to tell Bancroft to hide the evidence so he's hardly innocent.
Posted by Leslie Bone on 28/03/2018 at 10:43
I am surprised at you Simon Hughes. Lehmann has been a disgrace to the game for some time. Look at how he wanted the Australian public to treat Stuart Broad. Look at how he has gone along with the behaviour and antics of the Australian team. As for Smith and Warner I have no sympathy at all. Obviously not fit to lead. Responsibility seems to be a dirty word.
Posted by Ben on 28/03/2018 at 10:04
At what point do we get Lehmann to explain his conversation with the 12th man leading to him entering the field to converse with Bancroft before he shoved the offending item down his trousers? Perhaps Lehmann didn't know about the plan to ball-tamper but without an adequate explanation it looks for all the World he was involved in attempting to cover it up.
Posted by Ann Gray on 28/03/2018 at 09:57
I find it hard to feel sympathy for Smith and Warner. There are some people who appear to be claiming that Smith, in the press conference, was trying to lift the blame from Bancroft. If that's so, then despite being a 'kind ' thing to do it's,at best, naive. If not the case then the whole thing is blatant cheating. Bancroft may have been stupid to go along with it- after all, who amongst us hasn't done something in the heat of the moment and regretted it (though this doesn't seem to have been that kind of mistake)? But Bancroft has a conscience and should never have agreed. As for Lehmann, if he didn't know then he deserves to not be vilified. But I have to ask 'who sent the message to Bancroft to hide the tape?' If that was the coach he was what would be described as an accessory after the fact and still, in my view, has questions to answer. My hope is that Cricket Australia will make a THOROUGH investigation and deal appropriately with those responsible, not as a knee-jerk reaction.
Posted by Ian on 28/03/2018 at 08:45
I can't agree with your sympathy for Smith. He, along with Warner, has been awkward and obnoxious since taking on the captaincy and made a calculated decision to cheat. This is not only an admission that, as a 'leadership group. they had run out of ideas as to how to bowl out SA legitimately, but also a lack of understanding of what the 'spirit of cricket', that the Aussies have been so keen to lecture everyone else on recently, is actually about. Whilst the full story may not be known for some time, I don't see many people shedding a tear or having a great deal of sympathy for anyone involved in this incident. What fools to have thought that winning a test match was so important as to risk their careers and, far more importantly their own reputations for. Hopefully Cricket Australia will impose significant sanctions on all concerned, not only financially, but by removing them from all forms of the game for some considerable time.
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