Australian players displayed a weak moral fibre in South Africa when no one felt courageous enough to speak against something that was clearly wrong
Oz coach Lehmann (left) chats with Steve Smith during a net session in Sydney earlier this year. Pic/AFP
Edmund Burke, the famous British philosopher once famously opined, "evil triumphs when good men do nothing". Assuming that this group of brigands has at least one good man amongst them, it is probably the most worrying aspect of this entire episode. Are we to assume that there was not one lone dissenting voice who had sufficient sway on the group-think culture to say, 'hey guys, this is cheating. We are not going down this road.'
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If that is the case, it is indeed a sad indictment of the culture of this group that it is so lacking in moral fibre that no one felt courageous enough to speak out against something that was clearly wrong.
Is coach Darren Lehmann part of the group? If not, why not? And even if he is isn't, you have to question the culture of this team he has created where the seeds of morally bankrupt decision-making has found a fertile breeding ground. The word "leadership" is worth exploring in the context of this incident.
Bad role models
What sort of leaders, heroes and role-models to millions of children, agree to a consensus decision to blatantly cheat and exploit the vulnerability of a young player who probably had no genuine choice? Cameron Bancroft was probably the only viable option for this Judas role. David Warner was already under scrutiny following suspicions around his hand bandaging and it needed to be someone who fielded in a position where almost every ball came his way en route to the bowler.
Short cover or mid-off (Warner) were probably the only options. It is pointless asking the fine leg fielder to be the nominated ball-tamperer because he wouldn't touch the ball often enough.
The Villain: "Wrong place, wrong time". It is hard to know just how much sympathy to feel for Bancroft. He is 25 years old, not quite the young boy that Mohammed Amir (18) was when he was fatally compromised in that infamous betting sting. He is young enough to be impressionable but old enough to know better.
Beware Bancroft
Old enough to know how to say "no". Old enough to know when something is blatantly wrong. Old enough to know that lying to an umpire is a serious offence. Young enough to be talked into doing the dirty work for others more cowardly. Young enough to panic and make such a ham-fisted effort at hiding the evidence. Young enough to hopefully not be hung out to dry forever. He was thrown under a bus by those who should have known better. What a complete balls-up that was, pun intended.
His media statement too was clumsy and poorly planned. Instead of focusing totally on the 'wrongness' of the act, he got sucked into talking about how dumb the decision was because there were so many cameras around. Wrong answer mate. What we needed to hear was that it was essentially a morally wrong thing to do, irrespective of whether you might get caught or not. Watching that press conference, I never got the feeling that they sufficiently addressed that issue. Bancroft will no doubt be thrown to the wolves. One can only hope that the wolves feed on more than just his bones.
If there is honour amongst thieves, his mates, the ubiquitous leadership group should stand alongside him as the media pack circles, howling for blood.
Also Read: We will get old waiting for ICC to act, says ex-Australia captain Kim Hughes
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