Crass decision-making! What kind of leaders, heroes, role-models agree to cheat?

Oz coach Lehmann left chats with Steve Smith during a net session in Sydney earlier this year PicAFPEdmund 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 groupthink culture to say hey guys this is cheating We are not going down this roadIf 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 wrongIs coach Darren Lehmann part of the group If not why not And even if he is isnt you have to question the culture of this team he has created where the seeds of morally bankrupt decisionmaking has found a fertile breeding ground The word leadership is worth exploring in the context of this incidentBad role modelsWhat sort of leaders heroes and rolemodels 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 bowlerShort cover or midoff Warner were probably the only options It is pointless asking the fine leg fielder to be the nominated balltamperer because he wouldnt touch the ball often enoughThe 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 betterBeware BancroftOld 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 hamfisted 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 ballsup that was pun intendedHis 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 bonesIf there is honour amongst thieves his mates the ubiquitous leadership group should stand alongside him as the media pack circles howling for bloodAlso ReadWe will get old waiting for ICC to act says exAustralia captain Kim HughesCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates