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It’s worth revisiting the lead-up to the ball-tampering fiasco to assess whether we can forgive Steve Smith.
Firstly, the South African fans were rude and disrespectful for the entire tour. That’s when they actually turned up to the Test matches. They attacked David Warner personally and didn’t hold back on his wife.
This was exacerbated by the South African cricket officials who happily posed for a picture with ugly fans wearing Sonny Bill Williams masks. For those who don’t know, Candice Warner had a fling with the great Sonny Bill, but this was way before she’d met her husband.
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On top of this disgusting behaviour, South Africa’s best bowler, Kagiso Rabada, had his suspension miraculously overturned. This bizarre backflip was embarrassing for the game as Rabada was behaving with a hatred and physical intimidation that goes way beyond the spirit of the game.
The other thing to point out is that Australia was being dominated and the batsmen had no answers for the South African quicks. They were looking down the barrel of a humiliating series loss. In fact, the unbeatable Smith was only averaging 23 runs, which is a shocking failure by his lofty standards.
This pressure cooker environment led to the desperate act of ball tampering. It’s not right, but it can be forgiven.
It will be interesting to see if Steve Smith can rise up again to save Australian cricket one day.
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