How did it get to this?
Our captain is a broken man. Nobody else can feel his pain, but the harrowing vision was there for all to see. The Australian cricket and mainstream media must accept a lot of the responsibility.
A proper journalist would seek to find the truth behind the story. In doing so, a proper journalist should retain their independence, their balance, and, importantly, their sense of perspective.
Instead, what has transpired over the last six days is a heaving pack of both cricket and non-cricket journalists expressing forthright and extreme opinions on the fate of three Australian Test cricketers.
From those who may have driven past a suburban cricket ground once to those who owe their livelihood to it, everyone was trying to be more outraged than the one before. Social media, not surprisingly, gave these people a voice and off we went.
I hope those people cherished their Facebook likes and their retweets as they watched our captain at his press conference upon arrival in Sydney on Thursday evening.
The facts appear to have been largely established. Three Australian Test cricketers made a very poor choice. There was a plan. It was a bad plan. Sandpaper was involved. They confessed (how couldn’t they?). Suspensions were doled out. The coach resigned.
The ‘everyone-does-it’ argument rightfully holds no water. The ‘all-who-get-caught-doing-it-deserve-the-same-punishment’ argument certainly does.
The facts extend beyond the act itself and to the punishment meted out for prior ball tampering incidents. The extent and nature of the recommended punishment spewing from cricket and non-cricket journalists was mind-blowing. I didn’t see death-by firing-squad but I may have missed it.
Non-cricket journalists either didn’t know or chose not to know about these prior incidents. The cricket journalists, however, are obliged to know.
If the cricket media was doing its job, they might have discovered and widely reported that in 1994, England’s captain Michael Atherton incurred a 2,000 pound fine for ball tampering, served a zero-match suspension and was awarded an OBE three years later.
They might have discovered and widely reported that in 2001, India’s Sachin Tendulkar was handed a suspended one-Test ban for ball tampering while also being fined 75 per cent of his match fee. Tendulkar is a cricketing demi-god.
They might have discovered and widely reported that in 2013 and in 2016 (as captain), South Africa’s Faf du Plessis was found guilty of ball tampering and was fined 50 per cent and 100 per cent of his match fee, respectively. He missed no matches and is still the South African captain.
Each of these acts was as premeditated as the sandpaper in Cape Town. Atherton putting dirt in his pocket and then on the ball? Premeditated. Du Plessis rubbing a ball on a zip or applying sugary saliva to a ball? Premeditated. Tendulkar picking the ball’s seam? Premeditated.
Of course, there are other examples of modest punishments for ball tampering. Yet, through all the hysteria and bone-headed calls for life bans, there was very little media coverage of these precedent punishments.
Social media then kicked in and the kangaroo court of public opinion handed down its ruling. Under the circumstances, Cricket Australia’s only option was to go hard.
Ultimately, the media failed to do their job. The consequence of the abrogation of their responsibility was laid bare in our captain’s when he touched down in Sydney
There’s no hiding behind the national interest on this one.
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