It's Just A Game

Haven't they suffered enough?  Or haven't we suffered enough?  Or hasn't somebody somewhere suffered enough?  It's not like they committed murder or anything and worse things happen at sea.  In fact worse things probably happen on a decent sized lake or overfilled bathtub.  It's time to forgive and forget.  To rehabilitate those responsible and move on after all its not like somebody did it to us.

I've been watching cricket.  Specifically I've been watching cricket where Australia has been competing.  The team has had its ups and downs while the body supposedly administrating them has largely been administrating their own self destruction.  For a combination of purblind arrogance and tin eared refusal to accept reality Cricket Australia has been hard to beat in recent months (although the federal Liberal party could run them a close second).

It all goes back to the ball tampering incident in March.  Or to be slightly less circumspect, it all goes back to when members of the Australian cricket team cheated during a test match and did it so oafishly as to raise serious concerns about their intelligence as well as their integrity.  Those involved (or at least those caught) have been stood down and are currently not playing for their country; good.  Cricket Australia has been purged of some of those who helped create the culture that encouraged such behaviour, also good although it would have been better a few months ago both from a "swift justice" viewpoint and also so it didn't occur in the middle of a series that the Australian team was trying to win, apparently without cheating this time.

So far so, well not good but possibly the best that can be hoped for considering where we started from.  What concerns me is that apparently there is already a move to rehabilitate the players involved and get them back into representative cricket.  Perhaps if the Australian team had wiped the floor with every opponent since the incident this push would be less but that was always going to be difficult.  With freshly minted captains, a new coach and the entire team, rightly or wrongly, under a cloud continuous triumph on the cricket field was a little much to expect.

I have some sympathy for Cameron Bancroft the young man who did the actual tampering.  I hope that after an appropriate penance he can return and attempt redemption.  For the other two I have nothing but disgust.  They were the two most senior players in the team.  The vice captain apparently came up with the bright idea of cheating their way to victory and his captain didn't do the only acceptable thing which was to shut it down immediately and make it plain that such behaviour would not be tolerated.

To decide to cheat is bad enough.  To select the most junior member of the test squad, the man least likely to be able to stand up to an instruction delivered by the vice captain and tacitly condoned by the captain himself was unspeakable.  Between them these two haven't just shamed Australian cricket, they've gone a long way towards destroying the career of a promising young player into the bargain.  I hope that neither of them plays any sort of representative cricket ever again.

Mention has been made of the pressures the two of them were under, the strain of always having to produce what a victory hungry public demands of its sportsmen.  I do understand that, they wouldn't be the first outstanding people who have cracked under such pressure.  But when something cracks you throw it away.  You don't reuse it in the hopes that it won't crack again.  It has also been said that the two deserve a chance to redeem themselves, to make good for what they've done.  I absolutely agree and there are many areas and opportunities where both of them using their experience and the residual of their fame and public affection could do a great deal of good.  They wouldn't be the first people to fall badly, pick themselves up and, through effort prove why we elevated them in the first place.  I just don't think any of them should involve playing cricket.  I strongly suspect I'm in a minority.

And if we absolutely must cheat can we please be a little better at it next time?  Not only was the idea shameful the execution was embarrassing.