Australian cricket has been irreversibly tarnished this week.
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A quick spit and shine on the trousers isn’t going to return the sheen on the Australian Cricket team.
The complete fallout of the ball-tampering scandal is yet to be felt, but the actions of Steve Smith, David Warner, Cameron Bancroft and the ‘leadership group’ should not be dealt with lightly.
Call me harsh, but I’m on the heavy-handed side of the fence and agree with the calls for them to be given life bans.
Too light a sentence and it just looks like we as a nation are happy to accept a national side that isn’t above board.
From my perspective at least, our national team seems to hold itself in high regard, other teams have been dodgy for decades, but we are beyond reproach.
Except we’re not.
We still cop it from the Kiwis for Trevor Chappell’s underarm bowl and that was 40 years ago, if we don’t stamp it out now, we’ll still be copping it about this for 40 years.
We can’t hold ourselves as more righteous than other national squads and then be low-down cheaters at the same time.
It’s one thing to make a light-hearted suggestion over lunch about sorting out the South Africans by roughing up the ball, but it’s another thing entirely to then plan it, agree to it and actually do it.
And with the current technology and number of eyes watching the game, I’m not sure how they figured to get away with it.
There is a heat camera on the stumps and sound sensors for Pete’s sakes, how do you plan on trying to hide stuffing sticky tape down your dacks?