We love our motherland and obviously we always want our team to perform the best in any sports event. But quite often next to our own team we tend to develop a fondness for some other team also and as far as I am concerned and particularly with related to cricket I had special admiration for Australia since my childhood. That could possibly be due to some coincidence that the first time I was listening to the cricket commentary along with my classmates in the winter of 1959, it was a test match between Australia and Pakistan, which the former won. Thereafter I was a passionate follower of Australian cricket.
But all that admiration has suddenly been grounded after knowing what transpired on the third day’s play of the third test match between Australia and South Africa at Cape Town, when the Aussies were caught cheating on the field for tampering with the ball with a foreign object, to change the condition of the ball in a bid to favour them. The shameful act was caught on the TV and there was nothing that the disgraced captain could do than to admit to the exploit and what is even worse is the disclosure that it was a pre-planned strategy carved with the complicity of the leadership group.
The cricketing world has been saddened that the gentleman’s game has been brought to such disrepute simply because of the selfish attitude of the Australian team to go to any extent to derive advantage by cheating. We feel ashamed that the reputed Aussies can stoop down to such an extent ignoring the rules of the game. The cricket fraternity across the globe has strongly chastised and derided the Australian cricket team for the ignominious on-pitch misdemeanour. The ICC has handed a one-match ban on the Australian captain Steve Smith who will also have to forfeit the entire match fee. Both the captain and his deputy David Warner owning responsibility have stepped down from their respective roles.
It is unfortunate that Steve Smith stepped in South Africa for the much debated series as the top test batsman in the world but is returning home amidst shame and dismay, and with the unprecedented outrage unleashed at home he may be even worried about a life ban that can be slapped by CA. In his brief leadership career this is the second scandal after the brain fade incident last year in Bengaluru.
