‘Cruel betrayal’: Australian public lambast Smith & Co for ball tampering

Being Australia’s cricket captain is widely seen as the second most important job in the country behind prime minister. Many would argue it holds even more prestige.

This high esteem, and Australians’ deep love of the game helps explain the stunned disbelief that has greeted skipper’s Steve Smith’s admission that he cheated, and even worse, that it was planned.

In an astonishing development, the captain said he hatched a plot to tamper with the ball in the third Test against South Africa, which saw team-mate Cameron Bancroft use yellow sticky tape on Saturday in Cape Town to try and alter its condition.

Everyone from former Test greats, to the Australian Sports Commission, and the public condemned what happened, with the story dominating front pages, television news and coffee shop chatter.

Even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was “shocked and bitterly disappointed”.

“It seemed completely beyond belief that the Australian cricket team had been involved in cheating,” he said.

“To cheat is just not in the spirit of what Australians do. They fight hard, they play hard, but they don’t cheat,” cricket fan Steve Chaka told AFP in Sydney.

Another, Giovanni Cettolin, said Smith’s lapse of judgement was “definitely not good sportsmanship for an Australian”.

“Us Aussies all dig in and fight hard, you know, and obviously he didn’t do that. It’s a shame, it really is.”

‘Major repairs will be needed’

Catherine McGregor, author of the book “An Indian Summer of Cricket”, said it would take a long time for the Australian public to forgive “this cruel betrayal”.

“No other game is so self-conscious in revering noble defeat, nor in insisting how it is played is more important than the result,” she wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Cheating in order to win at any price ‘just isn’t cricket’.”

She added that the anger of cricket lovers around the country was understandable.

“They are the true believers. This team is unworthy of them.”

Australian cricket fans have long regarded the national team’s style as hard but fair, but there has been mounting concern about the perceived arrogance from some, with the cheating scandal a step too far.

Peter Lalor, cricket correspondent for The Australian and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, said the conspiracy clearly showed “there is something rotten at the heart of the Australian cricket team”.

“The public has struggled to love a side that wins ugly, but success and nationalism and tradition have patched the frayed fabric,” he wrote Monday.

“A conspiracy to cheat, however, has ripped the cloth and major repairs will be needed.”

‘Disgrace and humiliation’

“Smith’s Shame,” screamed The Australian broadsheet on its front page, in remarks echoed by other media.

“The cheating has hurt Australian cricket from helmet to boot,” it said in a commentary calling for Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland to stand down.

“In charge of the game for nearly two decades, Sutherland has done little to change the rotten culture of the sport at its most senior level.”

It added that the scandal had dumped “disgrace and humiliation” on the nation.

Sydney Daily Telegraph sports writer Robert Craddock said Smith’s decision was not a moment of madness.

“It was the culmination of a grubby win-at-all-costs culture finally crossing from self-righteous rule-bending into a world of shameless, bald-faced cheating,” he wrote.

“Steve Smith’s reputation – and that of his team – will never recover from this episode.”

The Sydney Morning Herald was equally scathing, saying Australia’s cricket leadership had “lost the plot” and there will be a heavy price to pay.

“As this disreputable tour descended from the gutter into the sewer, the mythical line the Australians use as the yardstick for their behaviour has not only become blurred but disappeared altogether,” it said.

“This has been a truly awful few weeks for Australian cricket whose reputation has hit a new low. Rehabilitation will be long and slow.