As of today, Steve Smith and David Warner’s bans from international and top-level domestic cricket are over – but are they still cancelled?
“Cancelled” is of course the term commonly used on social media when it’s decided that somebody is no longer worthy of public support.
Everyone is being cancelled these days: celebrities, politicians, athletes – nobody is safe. It’s so easy. Don’t like what your co-worker said about the recent election? Just cancel them.
Worried an opposition player is going to give your team a headache on the weekend? Simple, just find an inappropriate meme they shared ten years ago and the outraged masses will do the cancelling for you.
So how will the pair be received in this merciless cancel culture? And I don’t mean how will they be received by opposition crowds. We know the answer to that. Those guys are going to get a colder reception than Tristan Thompson at a Kardashian baby shower. But that means nothing – it’s expected and their boos will hit softer and sting less than those of whom they represent.
I’m more interested to see if Australians have forgiven them. We won’t really know the answer to this question until they jog out once more in front of a packed home crowd and the cricket calendar means this probably won’t happen for some time.
When they do though, I hope it isn’t to the sound of booing.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t shed a tear watching Smith address the media when he arrived home from South Africa. When Smith broke down I felt his pain through the screen and I felt it viscerally.
It was confronting, seeing the usually brave and confident – some might say often-bullish – Smith in that state. I didn’t enjoy it, but I know there were a lot that did.
Steve Smith reacts during a press conference. (AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)
These people would have liked it even more when a few days later, Warner sat down for his own wet-faced press conference.
I won’t go on too long about the length of their bans. God knows there has been enough tantalising opinion pieces published on their severity.
But what I will say though is this: If the scandal had happened ten years ago, Warner and Bancroft would have played in the following Test and Smith would have been back after his ICC imposed one-match suspension.
They were very unlucky in that since then Australia has changed, and they were one of the first casualties of what it has become: an oversensitive nation full of sanctimonious sooks who get a sense of joy and gratification from publicly shaming anyone who makes even the slightest mistake or, who, god forbid, has views disparate to their own.
When news from Cape Town came through the Tweeters wanted blood and just as Pontius Pilate handed Jesus over to the angry masses, Cricket Australia buckled to external pressure, handing Smith and Warner extremely excessive sanctions to appease the outraged public.
In doing so, Cricket Australia wasn’t so much throwing their players to the wolves as they were giving in to the demands of whining poodles who have lived in a state of comfort for so long they have completely forgotten what real problems look like.
You may think I’ve gone a bit too far with the biblical analogy. When it comes to Warner, you might have a point. But Smith? His feats befit the comparison.
It’s been a difficult year for Steve Smith, not made any easier by the media. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
I felt a profound sadness seeing Smith in such a state. But I have to admit that my sadness was mixed with rage. That is because I would also be lying if I said wasn’t angry at Warner after the incident; I was, potently.
In fact, I’m ashamed to say for a short time I was one of those poodles that wanted him gone forever. Although I didn’t go as far as to call for his head in 80 characters or less. I blamed him for what Smith was going through.
Smith was Australia’s sweetheart and that little evil troll had poisoned his mind!
I wanted him gone forever the little, selfish bastard. But then some time passed. And then Cricket Australia announced their bans.
They felt harsh; unprecedented; disproportionate to their crimes. And then a little more time passed. I read a book that mentioned something about setting your house in perfect order before criticising the world.
I looked around at the crumbling ruins of my own house and thought deeply about this axiom.
Some more time passed. And then one slow morning while reading the paper at my local café, from a few tables down came a familiar voice.
I looked up and there in the corner, quietly eating their breakfast, was David and Candice Warner. David seemed reserved, shy almost; a far cry from his bullish on-field persona.
Warner was in a corner.
Now I ask you, all ye’ Davey detesters: If you were in my position at that cafe on that fateful morning, would you have stood, wiped the barbecue sauce from the corner your mouth, brushed the crumbs off your protruding stomach and waltzed over to Warner?
Would you have stood there (most likely towering over the seated hobbit), cleared your throat and then proceeded to repeat to him all of the things you have said about him on social media or to other people in the past.
Right there in person, to David, the man? In front of his lovely wife no less, who at the time was just trying to enjoy her eggs.
If you think that you would, then let me ask you another question. Have you ever made a mistake? Are you so perfect that you can cast judgement on others so easily, unencumbered by any inklings of hypocrisy and guilt?
Is your house in such divine order that it looks as if Marie Kondo has had a puff on the ol’ glass barbie and stayed up cleaning for three days straight?
I know my metaphorical house doesn’t look like that – heck I have already admitted that I flirted with the dark side with my desire to have David cancelled.
If you think you wouldn’t be so bold as to say such things to Warner’s face then may I suggest you also refrain from yelling them from the safety of the second tier.
David Warner leaves the field. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
It’s true, David does come off as a bit of a flog. At times he has appeared bullish, cocky, and arrogant. Plus, he’s short. Short blokes are almost always flogs. But we can’t crucify him for that.
Just like we can’t crucify David Koche for being annoying or anyone from Married At First Sight for that matter. Let’s move on and at least give these guys a chance to be better people.
So, get over it and get behind our boys. God knows they need our support now more than ever. And if you do get on your high horse and boo poor little David, or Steve for that matter, well, by doing that you’d be acting unAustralian – which is the very crime you were angry at them of committing in the first place.
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