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Suggestions for the Cape Town trio's redemption plan

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Roar Rookie
7th May, 2018
11

Now that the dust has settled on the Cape Town incident and Australian cricket is making steps to move on, Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are probably in a better place mentally to begin working on their redemption stories.

Part of the battle was already won by their emotional apologies and subsequent acceptance of the Cricket Australia sanctions – most Australian cricket lovers have forgiven them in the face of obvious contrition.

The path to earning back respect, however, might be longer. Listed below are suggestions that might help.

Mentor kids
This one is obvious, as the optics of running around with a bat around small kids is hard to beat. My suggestion here is they consider going a step further and putting up training videos on a YouTube channel to reach a broader audience.

Mentor replacements
These are three excellent batsmen and the batting strength of the team is greatly weakened in their absence. Opposing teams sense blood and will move in for the kill.

Cricketing fans hate seeing Australia lose and will appreciate it if the three help their teammates become better batsmen so they can give teams a fight they do not expect.

It is taken as a given that the three will be selected back on the team once their bans finish. If we are to win the Ashes against England and have a chance of winning the World Cup, we need greater batting depth – they could help the team develop this.

By doing so, they will show us unequivocally that the success of the Australian cricket team is more important to you than personal glory.

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Steve Smith

Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images

Play grade cricket
They need to show fans how they intend to play cricket from now on: hard but fair.

We will be disappointed if they remain sore losers and obnoxious winners, but disappointed if they turn into bland doormats. Hopefully they find that happy medium.

Playing grade cricket will also demonstrate that they love the game and not the big money and high-profile career that comes with international cricket.

They can show us they have no ego when it comes to the game and no forum is too small to demonstrate their enthusiasm for cricket.

Develop another interest
One of the reasons we were so disappointed after the Cape Town incident is that it is so completely inexplicable why they would do this. Why indulge in such a blatant attempt at something obviously against the rules?

The post-match press conference in Cape Town was telling – they thought the match was important to win. It speaks to being completely ensconced in a cricketing bubble where winning a particular match in a bilateral series was more important than the warning bells that were surely clanging.

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Perhaps they need more perspective about other, more important things in life. It makes sense to try and develop other interests. Associate with a cause, pick up a hobby, start a business. Hopefully, they return better-rounded cricketers.

Play County Cricket
Similar to playing grade cricket, this will demonstrate the type of cricket they want to play. Also, play for the reasons Virat Kohli is playing County Cricket instead of an international Test match – to prepare for playing in English conditions.

Be prepared for intense booing.

Have a civil disagreement with a person of equal stature
This is especially true for Steve if he wants to be captain again.

He has been well-liked and it appears he wants to keep it that way. It must be questioned, however, how this extended to not putting his foot down on a downright stupid plan.

Trying to be popular makes for terrible leadership. He has already proven he is willing to stand up to other teams, now he must prove to the selectors, fans and, most importantly, to himself that he is willing to stand up for a just cause – even if that entails discord with people considered friends.

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Interact with the public
The easiest way to make us forget about the old controversy is to create a new one – ask any politician.

Since the three, however, presumably do not want to be associated with more controversies in the near future, the mid-way option is to interact often with the public. When we hear from them regularly, it is harder for us to remember what they said or did months ago which made us mad.

Support another athlete when they are down
While they attracted vitriol after the Cape Town incident, they also attracted a lot of support. Selectors, colleagues, players from other countries, ex-Australian players, celebrities from different walks of life in different countries, as well as many cricket fans across the world who did not know them made their support known – many of them publicly.

It would only be fair if they passed the good deed along and supported another person when they are down.

Cooperate with the review being undertaken by CA
We understand that there is some unfairness in them carrying the can for a cricketing culture they did not initiate, and which they might have made efforts to mitigate.

We want to get to the bottom of the causes and effects of this culture that culminated in the pathetic on-field behaviour that we sometimes saw on our screens and how that might have contributed to the Cape Town incident.

When these three represent Australia, we do not like the world thinking that all Australians behave that way.

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Complete and honest cooperation in the review towards improving the cricketing culture will go some way in convincing us of their commitment to improving the behaviour and perception of the Australian cricket team.

We fans have many disagreements about the severity of the offence, the fairness of the punishments, CA’s handling of the incident, the roles played by fans and media in the aftermath, and much more.

We are, however, united in one belief – what happened in Cape Town was sad and disappointing.

We are looking forward to the redemption of Australian cricket and part of that is Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft’s personal redemption.

We are eager to prove all those naysayers wrong – please give us that opportunity.

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