mid day editorial: This controversy is a wrecking ball for cricket

The Table Mountain setting at Newlands in Cape Town provides for one of cricket's prettiest sights. Ironically, South Africa's finest cricket ground witnessed an incident that will go down in the annals as one of the game's biggest and ugliest controversies.

For Australia, which has yet to be accused of match fixing, Saturday's ball tampering controversy involving opening batsman Cameron Bancroft and Captain Steve Smith (also the much talked-about and unidentified leadership group) is far bigger than the Greg Chappell-ordered underarm ball bowled by his brother Trevor against New Zealand in 1981, and more depressing than the abusive sledging instances that crop up from time to time.

Ball tampering is not new to cricket. The great Imran Khan admitted he used a bottle crown to change the condition of the ball in county cricket, and there's a good chance that the Indian team of 1982-83 suffered because of this on their tour of Pakistan. But what Smith's Australia did on Day Three of the Cape Town Test by damaging the ball with a dirt-laced tape was a committed and conspired attempt to gain an unfair edge over South Africa. Reports don't point to their coach Darren Lehmann as someone who was privy to the plan. If that is the case, Lehmann should quit in disgust and tell Smith that he doesn't need a coach to run his ship.

Australia is a great sporting nation. We have been made to believe that kids are given the 'play hard, play fair' mantra early enough, but Smith & Co have caused a good amount of disbelievers on that front now. And while that is inevitable, it's also a pity because not everyone can be painted with the same brush.

Australia's cricket map doesn't look good, and some unprecedented action by Cricket Australia can rid the creases.

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