There is a feeling that Smith has been handled with kid gloves, and that his actions merit a harsher penalty. I do not agree with this.
Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft has been literally, and figuratively, caught with his pants down. The amazingly sensitive camera at the Newlands cricket ground in Cape Town picked up his extremely unethical act, during the recently concluded Test match against South Africa, of rubbing the ball with a rough material (possibly a tape) in order to facilitate the difficult-to-play reverse swing.
Cameron pulled out the shining material from inside his trousers and put it back there once alerted by someone from his team. It was a despicable criminal conspiracy. To describe in legal parlance, an offence under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, with Smith being Accused Number 1.
The umpires were quick to take cognisance of this misdeed and gave the Australian captain Steve Smith a dressing down, and he has since been banned for one Test. Bancroft will lose 75 per cent of his match fee.
There is a feeling that Smith has been handled with kid gloves, and that his actions merit a harsher penalty. I do not agree with this. His unprofessional conduct is, no doubt, hugely condemnable. But, being a first-time offender, he deserves compassion and sympathy.
The debate is analogous to what takes place every day in the criminal justice system. Are penalties meant for retribution, or for correction, especially when a delinquent commits an offence for the first time? Harsh punishments do not deter a prospective offender, nor do they bring down the crime rate. Also, as a former police officer, I am aware of how the system is relatively kind to a criminal who has no past record, and whose act under scrutiny was not one which was violent, or caused bodily injury.
I know I represent a minority view. This does not persuade me to say what is popular, and one which appeals to the gallery.
In my estimate, the pressures and temptations that a popular sport offers these days are enormous. The media making a hero out of every player, even for a minor achievement, eggs them on to try to achieve the impossible.
Recall how Dinesh Karthik was recently hailed for his last ball six against Bangladesh at Colombo. How would we have reacted if he failed to connect with the ball, and no run came off it? The pressure cooker situation faced by every sportsman of our times is the principal reason why cricketers and others are driven to misbehave, throw caution to the wind, and believe that the end justified the means.
Football has just now followed cricket in introducing video reviews of critical moments in matches. This is welcome, but if anyone believes that we are going to see cleaner football, they are sadly mistaken. As long as big money is the bait, every sportsman will look for opportunities to use foul means to succeed.
There are no hopes that money will at any time be divorced from sports. When this is the case, why get exercised over Smith’s utterly foolish act? In a lighter vein, he should be punished for his stupidity, rather than for his culpable dishonesty.
R.K. Raghavan, was a CBI Director who supervised the agency’s investigation into the cricket match-fixing scandal of the late 1990s. He was also a cricketer, umpire and radio/TV commentator.
I don’t understand the sympathy that this guy is getting. He did something spiteful and he has to pay for it. By the author’s logic, first-time wrongdoers are automatically entitled to a get-out-of-jail-free card. What kind of legal/ethical standard are you hoping to set? I don’t regard this as punitive action taken against a single player, it is a deterrent. Without doubt, Australia has instutionalized cheating and high-handedness to stay at the top, be it their ‘brain-fades’, unwonted sledging and ‘Ump intimidation’. The buck certainly has to stop somewhere. Being a champion cricketer does not give you the right to cheat on a cricket field. If anything, Smith should be sorry that he made that silly judgement call in the first place. Instead, he cried and claimed that it was unfortunate that he had to get caught red-handed. Unquestionably, he is paying for the horrible precedent his predecessors have set and the attitude upon which he’s chosen to be incumbent.
Very poor article. It seems author is not following cricket regularly. His basic premise is that this is a first-time offense by Smith. This is absolutely wrong. Smith has been involved in cheating earlier too. His act of looking towards dressing room to get the hint on DRS was another such act. He has shown a pattern of such behavior where he would not mind crossing the line to get the advantage on the field. He deserves to be banned for life.
Cricket Australia is also to be blamed for this sorry state. They have passively encouraged sledging and abusive, intimidating behavior of Aussie cricketers, on and off-field. This condoning of unprofessional, unethical behavior to get a competitive advantage is also wrong. This has led to a culture where non-cricketing factors became acceptable to win matches.
Completely scatter-brained article. This gentleman was supposed to have investigated the 1990s Indian fixing scandal. Did his mercy extend to the culprits there too? Isnt that why Azzaruddin goes around saying he is innocent and Kapil got away with crying on the TV. Isnt that why there was brazen cheating later on too, after all no one gets punished huh?! The way to deal with cheating is to nip at the bud. Such people do not deserve to wear the country’s colours. Smith, Warner and Lehmann should be striped off their right to wear the baggy green cap for a period of 5 years and banned from playing for a year. That will really hurt them, will make them “role models” for every youngster when they seem them with a white cap while the rest of the team wear the team colours.
The article author is plain stupid. Smith should be banned for life if you ask me. Not for ball tampering but admitting it was planned ahead. That is worse than match fixing if you ask me. Premeditate cheating is a no no in sports. That is why australia is angry at smith. He bring down the pride of australian team as cheats by admitting it as it is a plan. We do not know how many games these people were doing this every time starc reverse swing the ball. Thief is thief only until he gets caught. Now thief is caught. Warner and Smith should be banned for life. Period.
Not for ball tampering but for planning to cheat.
The arguments in the article are relevant and justified if this was a flip side piece that just had to be written – but not for any other reason.
It’s really not about making a mistake the first time. That can be condoned if it’s accidental, not premeditated. These kind of aberrations have been previously widely acknowledged and admonished as unfair play. To me, if you know this, and continue to do it nevertheless, you’ve grossly erred.