Time for Steve Smith and Australia as a sporting nation to hang their heads in shame

Alex Broun 20:42 25/03/2018
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  • Steve Smith during the fourth day at Newlands.

    The peanut gallery is loving this.

    By that I mean any sportsperson or fan who has ever had to suffer a demoralising defeat at the hands of an aggressive Australian sporting team.

    They are loving this: the comprehensive professional and personal humiliation of Steve Smith’s Ashes winning-side at the hands of an impressive South African line-up.

    A few short weeks ago Smith was being compared to the Don – now he’s being looked at more like a master of another ancient art-form: Bozo, the clown.

    Cameron Bancroft’s pant shifting antics could also earn him a place in more salacious cinematic offerings.

    As a (once proud) Australian it’s all been pretty hard to watch.

    From Davey Warner’s bleatings in Durban to the Aussies capitulation in Port Elizabeth it’s become harder and harder to stomach.

    Over the last few days Australian cricket has descended into broad farce.

    It’s hard to know what is more ridiculous: Warner having his own private body-guard patrolling the boundary rope, Bancroft putting the “sticky next to his d—-” – as one Australian ‘newspaper’ so colorfully put it.

    Or the batsmen’s meek surrender in the fourth innings on Sunday, where they were literally running themselves out so desperate were they for the Test to end.

    But let’s get one thing straight – Australia is still a great sporting nation and whatever happened at the foot of Table Mountain doesn’t change that.

    The Australian cricket team – like the nation itself – has changed dramatically in recent decades.

    Once a genteel bunch horrified at the ‘bodyline’ tactics of Douglas Jardine, they were morphed by Ian Chappell then Allan Border and finally Steve Waugh to a baying bunch of dogs, ‘mentally disintegrating’ their way to the top of the cricket world.

    Australia the country has similarly moved to darker terrain.

    Once a nation built on “mate helping mate”, John Howard (a noted cricket lover) moved it a sharp step to the right inducing a wave of solipsism, bigotry and fear of the other.

    The Australia of 2018 is a far cry from Bob Hawke’s Australia or even Robert Menzies.

    Hawke no doubt would be privately decrying the crass acts of Steve Smith and co as “bloody un-Australian”.

    And that’s the thing about Aussies – we can dish it out but we sure find it hard to take.

    Warner was quick to berate Quinton de Kock for crossing the line in Durban by referring to his family in a sledge-fest, but then Warner had done the same thing repeatedly hours before.

    Live by the sword – die by the sword.

    Two true Australian sporting heroes - John Eales and George Gregan

    Two true Australian sporting heroes, John Eales and George Gregan.

    Smith’s team is discovering that the hard way.

    The greatest sporting teams are the ones who make it look effortless as they crush all before them – Messi’s Barcelona, Brady’s Patriots, Curry’s Warriors, Maradona’s Argentina, Pele’s Brazil – and Australia has had a few of those.

    John Eales’ Wallabies, Rugby World Cup champions in 1991 and 1999, were a side who carried themselves with greatness on and off the field – and names like Toutai Kefu, Tim Horan, George Gregan, Jason Little and Eales himself will always be uttered with respect and considerable awe.

    As will Rod Laver, Kenny Rosewall, Cathy Freeman, Shane Gould, Betty Cuthbert – Bradman himself.

    No longer will the name Steve Smith command such respect. Or Cameron Bancroft. Or David Warner. Or any of the young men who have tarnished the baggy green over the last few weeks.

    The sin itself was trivial and altogether pointless – Australia losing the Test by 323 runs – but the intention was hellish.

    This was pre-planned, team-wide, criminal collaboration against – as Malcolm Turnbull said – both the rules and spirit of the game.

    As joyously as all Australians celebrated their superb victory over England, they just as venomously have turned on Smith and his co-conspirators as the details of the deception emerged.

    The admirable end of day confession came far too late.

    The Aussies may as well not even bother to turn up for the fourth Test in Johannesburg. Hopefully Darren ‘Boof’ will give his final order as coach and tell the bus to head straight from Newlands to the airport.

    The failed ball tampering has already become the subject of ridicule – the stain upon the ethos of a great sporting nation will take much longer to fade.

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