It is not clear who benefited from all the weeping in the fall-out of the Australia ball-tampering scandal but not the playersFive days deep into the scandal the Australia team finally hit bottom. Their coach has quit, their two openers are banned and their captain and best batsman since Don Bradman is a broken man.Thursday was a wretched day. It began with Cameron Bancroft’s press conference in Perth, his words catching in his throat as he spoke, continued with Steve Smith’s in Sydney, when he seemed almost overcome with suffering, and finished with Darren Lehmann’s sudden announcement that, despite everything he had said, he was going to resign after all. Lehmann said he changed his mind when he saw Smith...
Only weeks after saying in an interview how he was maturing as a leader and person, Australia’s former vice-captain descended into new darknessA few weeks ago this paper ran an interview with David Warner. I wrote it. He agreed to it cheerfully despite having just arrived in South Africa from New Zealand via a brain-bending series of flights. He was keen and spoke in extended and considered fashion: about family, playing a character villain, the realities of an underprivileged upbringing and his desire to help people from similar backgrounds. He spoke about change and maturing as a person. He was impressive. Related: David Warner says punching Joe Root was turning point off and on pitch Related: David Warner steps down from...
Cricket Australia has come down hard on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft but ‘tampergate’ will not end hereThe harder you step in mess, the more it spreads. Last Saturday Cricket Australia found a flaming bag of the stuff on its doorstep and, just like the headteacher in the high school movie, decided the best way to put it out was to stamp right down on it. CA has banned Steve Smith and David Warner from all state and international cricket for a year, Cameron Bancroft for nine months, and ordered all three to do 100 hours of community service. Smith will not be eligible for any kind of leadership role in the Australian team for another two years,...
James Sutherland’s general comments about an uncompleted investigation into ball tampering did the ruling body no good and allowed the issue to festerIt was as Cricket Australia as Cricket Australia gets. Process before progress, careful phrasing before straight answers. The chief executive officer, James Sutherland, fronted up on Tuesday evening South African time after a day of anticipation about how Australia’s ball-tampering scandal would be resolved, then postponed resolving it by 24 hours, saying the investigation he had commissioned was incomplete.Some concrete information of significance did come out. Preliminary findings implicated only the Australia captain, Steve Smith, his deputy David Warner and the junior Cameron Bancroft. The three would be sent home and replaced by Matthew Renshaw, Joe Burns and...
Australia should have been reflecting on an impressive win in South Africa but once again all the talk is of an unsavoury spat between playersHere we go again. A better than decent Test Match concluded on Monday in Durban but will never stand a chance of capturing the attention it deserves. Events of the previous afternoon made sure of that. Press conferences came and went where the participants argued their corner in the usual way. Match officials will try to unpick it all from narrators unlikely to give an inch. Will anything change? Almost certainly not.That David Warner was front and centre was all the spice the tale required. Of course he has form, most of it some years ago,...