STEVE SMITH; STILL CHEATING.

A few days ago, Steve Smith, now the former captain of the Australian cricket team, appeared in front of the cameras to make light of his team's ball tampering. Smith then seemed to believe that it was a pretty minor matter and insisted that he would simply 'learn' from the 'mistake' and carry on as team member and captain.

Today, having discovered that blatant cheating is considered rather more seriously by the Australian cricketing authorities, Smith has again appeared before the media but his demeanour this time was somewhat different. Apologetic and contrite, he developed a nasty case of crocodile tears as he talked of his sins.

How utterly false and nauseating. Having been found out and condemned, Smith now seeks to engender pity; for a man who is as hard as nails, this simply doesn't wash. The actions that he initiated and supervised were premediated and calculated yet now he wants us to accept that it was really just a terrible single mistake. 

Poppycock. A mistake it wasn't and whether it was a single occurrence is seriously open to question. The man is a cheat of the worst kind and his behaviour today was nothing more than an attempt to cheat watchers again. Do not be fooled by the phoney tears.

AUSTRALIAN CHEATS CAUGHT - THIS TIME.

In the sport of cricket, 'ball tampering' is not only against the rules, it's the height of unsporting behaviour and cheating. Shockingly, the Australians have admitted that they have been guilty of this in the course of the current test match against South Africa.

It seems that  a group of leading players, including the captain, Steve Smith, got together during a lunch interval and decided to engage in this heinous activity. Unfortunately for them, the actions of the main perpetrator, Cameron Bancroft, were caught on film and the plot was revealed.

Bancroft has owned up, has been charged with misconduct and will undoubtedly suffer for his actions. However, Captain Smith, while admitting to the scheme has insisted that he will not resign his role and there seems to be no action proposed against him at the present time. How can this be ?

Smith is one of the world's greatest batsmen and has proved himself to be a fine captain, until now. As an admitted cheat surely, the Australian cricketing authorities must nonetheless remove him from his post with immediate effect, and also remove him from the team regardless of his prowess with the bat. To do anything less will be for them to condone cheating and to render every Australian player and every Australian performance suspect.

As an afterthought, how can we be sure that such cheating did not also occur during the recent Ashes series in which the Australians defeated England 4 - 0 ? 

Once a cheat, always a cheat !

postscript :

It seems that the world of cricket, and politics, has realised that this appalling behaviour has to be dealt with. Smith has been relieved of the captaincy and David Warner of the vice-captaincy, temporarily for now but surely for good once things are settled. To his credit, the Australian Prime Minister has made a fairly believable appearance as a man who finds it all very embarrassing for his country. Smith has been banned for one match by the ICC and will undoubtedly find that he has lost the captaincy and, quite possibly, his place in the team for, at least, a few games more than that. Additionally, the situation of the national coach, Darren Lehmann, is surely 'dead in the water'.

Pundits, commentators, reporters and all of the rest seem to be of one mind - this can't be allowed and the guilty must pay. Let's see if politics, of all sorts, allows that to happen.