Australian cricket. What happened?

Australia has always been known to have a strong and competitive cricket team, and this is because cricket has been an Australian religion ever since we were first introduced to the bat and ball.

As time went by, cricket gradually became a more important part of what it meant to be an Australian. Australians were known to be kind and welcoming, thus transferring over to the way that we as a nation play sport. This meant playing all sports with a standard of following the rules while also behaving in ways that reflect good sportsmanship.

This colloquial law – that we were to be fair and always abide by the rules – had never been broken until 2018, when Australia faced South Africa.

Known officially as the 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal, this day will forever be remembered as the day we lost hope in the high moral standards we had been enforcing up to that point. The day Australia cheated will forever go down as the day cricket in this country was derailed for what could be a decade.

The actual tampering, which at first glance involved only team youngster Cameron Bancroft, was carried out by sanding the rough side of the ball with a small piece of sandpaper. This would give the ball more swing, handing Australia an advantage over South Africa, though swing wasn’t the only effect of the sanding. The action in question would come under some well-deserved scrutiny over the following weeks and months.

Three confessions, one resignation and an investigation led to bans for the three players who were involved in the scandal. After confessing to being aware of the plan and not stopping it, then captain Steve Smith was handed a 12-month ban from playing international cricket for Australia. Similar to Smith, the decision on David Warner’s fate was made easier with his confession to planning the whole scandal.

After handing a 12-month ban to Warner, the attention turned to Bancroft and whether or not he had as much of a part in the scandal as the other two players. The question was whether or not Bancroft helped Warner plan the event or whether he was just the doll to whom the leaders handed the responsibility.

It was decided that he was not as involved in the whole scandal as the other two, and he was handed a nine-month ban.

All this mayhem led to the resignation of the coach, Darren Lehmann. During a press conference in South Africa, just days after the end of the test, Lehmann announced his decision to quit as coach. Many believe that this decision was due to the embarrassment that was associated with the scandal. However, based on the colloquial law, it is safe to say that Darren was afraid of the disappointment of the Australian people being set on his shoulders.

This emotional resignation was symbolistic of the resignation of trust in Cricket Australia, although they claimed to have had no knowledge of what was occurring. The scandal was the end of Australia’s near century-long streak of being the world’s most sportsmanlike cricket team. And now, months after the scandal, still missing crucial players, Australia is struggling to get back onto their feet and to actually win a match.

The question now is: When will we recover and return to our position as one of the top cricket teams in the world?