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Thursday March 28, 2024

Australia in turmoil over ball-tampering shame

By AFP
March 26, 2018

MELBOURNE: Sports-loving Australia is in uproar over the ball-tampering scandal that has ensnared the national cricket team in South Africa with demands for heads to roll.

It’s been called the most shameful chapter in Australian cricket since Australian captain Greg Chappell infamously directed his brother Trevor to bowl the final ball of a tense One-Day International underarm against New Zealand in 1981.Australia captain Steve Smith and team-mate Cameron Bancroft sensationally admitted to ball-tampering charges during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday.

Smith, acclaimed by some as the best Australian batsman since the immortal Don Bradman, confirmed that Bancroft’s illegal actions to scuff up the ball were done with the full knowledge of the team’s leadership group.

Former Test paceman Rodney Hogg demanded via social media:”Unfortunately this is blatant cheating and Steve Smith will have to step down as Australian captain.”Cricket writer Robert Craddock weighed in: “Steve Smith’s reputation — and that of his team — will never recover from this episode.

“If he is axed as captain — and there is a strong push for it — there can be no excuses.”But instead Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland on Sunday said he will wait for an internal investigation to determine if Smith or any of his teammates will receive additional sanctions.

Smith and Lehmann have been criticised throughout the acrimonious Test series in South Africa for condoning over-exuberant wicket celebrations, aggressive sledging and off-field confrontations.

Under Lehmann’s leadership the Australian team’s image, at home and abroad, has taken a battering, prompting one opinion writer at cricket web-site Cricinfo to pose the question:“Why is it that whenever there is an epic-proportion bust-up in international cricket, Australians are almost always involved?”

Lehmann once wrote of his hard-nosed coaching philosophy:”We want to play within the rules but we will play aggressive, in-your-face cricket which was a trademark of (other) eras.“When Australian teams are performing at their best they are playing right on the edge. That is the Aussie way.”