Gentlemen’s Game

Cricket was once known as Gentlemen’s game, but where it has landed today. Some of the  present day players do not play the game in the spirit with which game was started  and over the years  winning only matters and with the involvement of big big bucks in the game, and so many format of games, cricket is no longer a gentlemen’s game.

Let us now come to latest scandal which has hit the game of cricket very badly and ie Australia and South Africa test series, during 4th test between these countries when a Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft was caught on live TV cameras with tampering the ball.  The hell broke loose, when afterwards it was disclosed by the concerned player that how to do the tampering of the ball was discussed in the team management meeting, and the same was admitted by Steve Smith, the Captain of the Australian team. The incident happened on Saturday  24th March, and on Sunday Steve Smith was banned for one match and fine equivalent to 100% match fees by the International Cricket Council’s(ICC ) governing body and the player who committed the offence was only fined 75% of match fees. Cricketers from the other countries   are fuming over  such a lenient punishment for the Australian players. Whereas, for the supposedly similar offence, Sachin Tendulkar was banned for 3  matches. former Indian player  Harbhajan Singh commented “It is a mockery of fair play judgement by ICC. No ban on Bancroft with all the evidences, whereas 6 of us were banned for excessive appealing without and evidence in South Africa in 2001. And remember Sydney 2008 (monkeygate incidence) where I was not guilty but still banned for 3 matches. Different people, different rule.”

There are so many instances, where it has been found that Australian cricketers have cheated or not played the game the way it is supposed to played. Few  of them , I am listing below:

1. Underarm incident (1981)- in a One day match against New Zealand at Melbourne, NZ required 6 runs of the last ball to win the match. Then Astralian captain Geg Chappell instructed the bowler to bowl underarm delivery so that batsman will find it difficult to hit sixer.
2. In 2003, Australian bowler Shane Warne  was banned for one year, as he was found positive for a banned drug.
3. 2008- in the same match mentioned in Harbhajan’s quote earlier, Ricky Ponting, the Australian Captain,claimed Saurav Ganguly’s catch, even after the ball had hit the ground. This incident led to flare of temper, which led to monkey gate. Anil Kumbale, then Indian Captain commented in Post match interview that “Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game”.
4. 2013- after losing the first 2 test against  India in India, and before the start of 3rd test 4 Australian players were axed, because they started dis obeying the cricket coach.\
5. David Warner, in 2013, were involved with Joe root England Captain in pub altercation, and he was suspended for the rest of the series and fined Aus $ 11,500 by Cricket Australia.
6. In 2017, in Banglore Test, Steve Smith, after being adjudged LBW, he was seen gesturing to Dressing room for guidance whether to or not go for a review against decision. In revoked a strong reaction from Indian players and media world wide.

Australian player have  very bad reputation for sledging and not playing the game as supposed to be played.They always think they are far superior to the players from other cricket playing nations, and in the recent years this problem has increased considerably. The management of Cricket Australia (CA)  is having a serious problem, are working really hard for face saving. Cricket Australia’s Head of Integrity Iain Roy and team Performance manager are already in South Africa for clean up actions, in this cheating Scandal. As per Cricket Australia’s code of behaviour, Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner can face life ban as the penalty. The commercial sponsors of the team Australia and  other sponsors who are paying to players for product endorsement are in jitters, as with this adverse reaction world wide, they and their products are going to suffer.

The country where position of cricket Team’s captain is considered as second to PM’s post, is in shock with this incident, and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull intervened on Sunday to demand quick action from CA. Qantas, who is one of the commercial partner of team Australia, in a statement said that ” This is deeply disappointing and certainly not what everyone expects from our national cricket team. We are in discussions with CA on this issue.Independent media analyst Peter Cox said the ball tempering scandal could prove disastrous for CA.

This ball tempering scandal will hit CA very hard , similar to what Hanse Cronje’s match fixing scandal did to cricket South Africa.

Indian IPL franchises are also having jitters as many have Australian players in their team. but Rajasthan Royals andDeccan Chargers have big problems on their hands as they have declared Steve Smith and David Warner captains of their respective teams, and as per the news they might just replace them.

In the end , let us wait for the further details.

Waiting for your feed backs/comments/ reviews.