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Self-assured Bancroft continues to grate

27th February, 2019
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27th February, 2019
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Cameron Bancroft’s return to cricket has been decidedly emphatic.

After an impressive BBL campaign, his commanding performance this week for Western Australia has presented Australian selectors with a third option to partner David Warner in as opener in this year’s Ashes.

In a short time, Bancroft has put himself forward as a serious case.

The marathon 621-ball dual innings (the fourth-most in the Shield ever) was reminiscent of his 228* (351) for Western Australia in November 2017 which, nine days out from the Ashes, catapulted him into the first Test XI at The Gabba.

Without that innings, we may not be speaking about him like we are now. It was the catalyst for bigger things, just as this week could bet the catalyst for an Ashes ‘redemption’. And as we know with Bancroft, everything at this stage is about redemption.

Australian opening batsman Cameron Bancroft walks out of the dressing rooms

Former Australian opening batsman Cameron Bancroft. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Perhaps the most pleasing aspect about Bancroft’s match at Bankstown Oval is that his bat finally did the ‘talking’. Prior and even right up to this week, Bancroft’s mouth has done it all. In fact, it’s done far too much.

It started with the ‘letter to himself’ in The West Australian prior to the Boxing Day Test. The cringe piece was at best self-indulgent, and at worst wholly out of touch. A clichéd redemption narrative was carefully spun, with pictures of him in yoga poses. “Yoga will teach you how to be true to yourself”, he wrote.

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The letter, by itself, could be excused. The interview with Adam Gilchrist aired during the Test couldn’t. The singlet-clad, bearded Bancroft said he was ‘proud’ that he and Steve Smith fronted the cameras immediately after the ball-tampering incident.

He also said that, at 25, he was just a young player desperate to fit in and, perhaps most oddly, was ‘fascinated’ why people cared about how he carried out the ball-tampering. But we all did – he just couldn’t see it.

The interview, in many minds, showed that despite the yoga and community service, he hadn’t truly grasped why the public were so hurt by his (and his teammates’) actions.

And still, to this day, Bancroft doesn’t really get it. When interviewed on the weekend, he stood dogmatically by the letter and interview.

To him, his “sole intention” for doing them was to share his “powerful lessons” with the public. He wanted to “touch people through some parts of my journey”. He believes his redemptive path can inspire others.

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People are inspired by tremendous feats of endurance in the face of adversity, of standing up to powerful institutions, and of initiating social change through brave campaigning. They aren’t touched by a cricketer who overcame an on-field misdemeanour, discovered yoga and returned to playing in nine months.

“If other people were triggered by that, I guess that is their battle to face,” the self-assured Bancroft said in the ABC interview. But no one was ‘triggered’. Confused, maybe. And I’d hazard a guess to say no one has a “battle to face” when deciding if his comments were inappropriate. They’ve already decided they were.

His rhetoric contrasts perhaps surprisingly with that of David Warner, who has strangely emerged with his head held most high of the banned trio. Warner has refused to talk (thus far) to media and allowed the public to make up its own mind – a pathway Bancroft should replicate.

Because in the end, he wasn’t dropped from the Australian team for form reasons. In fact, he was the highest Australian run-scorer in that fateful South Africa tour. He was dropped due to a warped view of what it meant to play cricket for Australia. Whether these views have been rectified remains an area of doubt.

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Contrary to what Bancroft thinks, the public decides his path to ‘redemption’, not him. The more runs he scores, and the less he speaks to the press, the quicker that may eventuate.

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