The two terrible lessons to come out of this ball-tampering scandal

In the midst of this issue which has dominated Australian sport over the past few days, two lessons have emerged.

1. Sledging works
Something to consider with all this sandpapergate stuff… fans and players have learnt (or rather confirmed) the importance of sledging in a successful sports campaign.

For it was incessant sledging that helped brought David Warner undone.

What he did was bad. Cheating. Getting Bancroft to cheat. Not admitting it.

He deserves a suspension.

But he also deserves some consideration for the ceaseless sledging against his wife.

By the Barmy Army. By South African players. By South African fans. By South African officials.

I mean, people wore masks of Sonny Bill Williams to the game. They went to that much effort – to create masks.

And this sledging helped make Warner snap.

Which he shouldn’t have done but he did it – and now Australian cricket is in a mess.

And the howling against the Aussies is so loud now that everyone seems to have forgotten about the stuff said about his wife, Candice.

Oh, and South Africa look like winning the series.

Mark Dorward, who organised the Sonny Bill Williams mask stunt, actually told the press, “It’s not about her, it’s about David Warner and it’s about getting under his skin.”

He succeeded.

The lesson to take from this?

Make your sledges personal.

Go after family members.

Be misogynistic.

Get the crowd involved.

Get officials involved.

Go for the jugular.

And you just might help your country win.

(Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

2. Don’t ever confess
The traditional defence when you’re caught ball tampering is to deny, deny, deny.

Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith tried that to start off with.

But because Bancroft tampered so badly they tried confessing.

But because they did that so badly they caused an international scandal.

The lesson to take from this?

If you’re going to cheat, do it wholeheartedly – don’t change horses midstream.

This scandal is going to make cricket worse, not better.