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Steve Smith: Celebrating the man I condemned

Roar Guru
4th August, 2019
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Roar Guru
4th August, 2019
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Although hardly singing a solo, I vocally condemned Steve Smith for his role in the ball-tampering abomination in Cape Town 15 months ago.

Indeed, in my article The Costs Not Counted, I used my best endeavours to articulate what I felt Smith and his nefarious comrades had taken from me and my fellow cricket tragics.

My pride in the national team was at its lowest and most insipid ebb.

Yet, seven minutes after lunch on the fourth day of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, Steve Smith stepped confidently down the pitch and caressed a Stuart Broad out-swinger to the deep cover boundary to register his second century of the match.

And sitting at home, I raised my hands joyously above my head and clapped in raucous support for the man I had denounced.

Steve Smith

(Photo by Visionhaus)

Does this make me a hypocrite?

I think not.

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Firstly – and not for nothing – the man has served his sentence. There are some who believe the 12-month ban was too long. Others would have banned the trio for life. I have consistently maintained that sitting out one Australian summer was about right.

Smith has done his time. Not always with the dignity which I would have liked to see, but he has served the penalty Cricket Australia imposed.

Secondly – and, for me, more importantly – there is no inconsistency in rebuking Smith for his role in the grating sandpaper scandal and celebrating his remarkable resilience whilst rejoicing in one of the truly great Test match triumphs.

I simply can not fathom what brand of tenacity must be harnessed to take a man from the abject humiliation which comes from being publicly branded a cheat to not just returning to the Test arena but dominating in such emphatic fashion.

Smith’s twin tons at Edgbaston were not merely a routine return to normal service. He has taken his already exceptional performance to a new and thrilling level.

Smith’s unique talent is as obvious as the eccentricity of his nervous twitches. We will never see another like him.

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Ultimately, no man is just one thing.

Whilst I will neither forget nor forgive Smith for his want of moral fortitude in South Africa, I rejoice in his ferocious determination to return to Test match cricket and celebrate him as the greatest batsman of my lifetime.

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