Unfair Dinkum: it's not cricket... or, how Australia is in shock about a fallen hero [Archive]

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 01:47

Say it ain't so, Steve.

The reference is to the famous story of Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the greatest scandal ever to hit baseball.

“It ain’t true, is it, Joe?”
“Yes, kid, I’m afraid it is.”
The boys opened a path for the ball player and stood in silence until he passed out of sight.
The Minnesota Times reported the above exchange between Shoeless Joe and a crowd of boys on the courtroom steps after Jackson had given evidence in an investigation into claims he and his White Sox team-mates had fixed the 1919 World Series.

In Australia, something almost as bad has just happened. And to the Australian psyche, it's far worse.

But first, I have about 10 more seconds to hold your interest before you stop reading. :)

The analogy:

It's as if Richard Dolan had just confessed to hoaxing a UFO report.
Now I might (possibly!) have your attention, this is all pretty interesting. The drama has been Shakespearean.

The ins and outs are far too complicated to explain to North Americans (or anyone who knows nothing about cricket).

But what's happened is that the AUSTRALIAN CRICKET CAPTAIN, Steve Smith — a golden boy national hero, and the best batter in the world today, holding a revered post that's been seriously stated to be the second most important in Australia (the most important being that of the Prime Minister) — has confessed to cheating.

And not only confessed to cheating, but rather than cheat himself, he persuaded (or at best condoned) the youngest rookie in the team to go out and cheat for him.

https://i.nextmedia.com.au/Utils/ImageResizer.ashx?n=https%3A%2F%2Fi.nextmedia.com.au%2FNews%2FGettyImages-937400878.jpg&h=224&w=402&c=1&s=1&q=90
Steve Smith (right) looks to the cricketing gods for guidance. Cameron Bancroft, the unfortunate rookie, is in the foreground looking (and probably feeling) very blurred.

And in a hasty press conference, after the poor rookie was caught red-handed on TV cameras like a clumsy kid stealing cookies, Smith, though embarrassed and apologetic, appeared to brush it all off as if it wasn't really anything all that much.

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/cameron-bancroft1-0.jpg
TV cameras caught Bancroft hiding a piece of what many insist is sandpaper in his trousers. He was using it to roughen up one side of the cricket ball, to make it move more aerodynamically and unpredictably in the air. This is absolutely against cricket's rules. Their opponents, South Africa, were ahead of them in the important international game, and Smith was desperate to create some advantage. (South Africa later won convincingly.)

The result has been 99% of Australia, in shock and outrage, calling for his head almost literally. It's been the headline there above most other world news for several days now.

One veteran cricket commentator broke down in tears on air. Distraught parents had no idea what to tell their hero-worshipping children. The Prime Minister made a strong public statement. The Poms, Kiwis and Saffers are all gloating, "I told you so."

Why does any of this matter?

Well, it's not really about cricket. That's not QUITE the gentleman's game it once was (though, interestingly, the gentlemanly-ness of it all is still very well-preserved in WOMEN's cricket).

What it's about is how we create heroes and heroines — desperate to find them in others, when we can't find the same in ourselves. And then... how they almost always let us down.

It's a kind of archetype that would make Joseph Campbell think hard: a search for perfection (out there, in others), and then when it all goes wrong, we crucify our saviors, one by one. Humans have been doing that for a VERY long time.

Heroes and heroines are hard to find. So when we can't find heroism within ourselves, we project it on to celebrities, sports personalities and, of course, our personal partners.

And sooner or later, that quite often ends in tears. :flower:

Why do we do this? Why do we expect and desperately hope that others will be perfect, when we are not... and later, blame them for it, every time?

Cricket-lovers, Australians, and those who don't know a thing about either, are all more than welcome to dive in. :)

Debra

27th March 2018, 02:14

It's a shocker!

Since Kerry Packer introduced the concept to mediafy the game with 1 day cricket and those fluorescent uniforms were born, a new breed of behaviours creeped in.
I don't know, it could all be a coincidence - but from what I observe from as far away as possible - I am not a sports fan by any stretch - cheating and aggressive behaviour is endemic in other 'ball' sports in Australia but my question is: who are they doing it for?

Maybe 'saviours' from sport are crucified because people do like rules.

Fascinating phenomenon to unpack, Bill.

KiwiElf

27th March 2018, 02:24

And then there's the case of the infamous Ozzie underarm bowling fiasco a few years ago... ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underarm_bowling_incident_of_1981

QIjCpPStHnE

Underarm bowler Chappell glad to lose 'most despised' tag
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/australia-in-south-africa/underarm-bowler-chappell-glad-to-lose-most-despised-tag/articleshow/63474718.cms
---------------------------------------
'I haven't been able to shake this for 37 years - this is a relief': Notorious underarm bowler happy to no longer be 'the most hated man in cricket' as he warns ball tamperers they will be haunted FOREVER for cheating

Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft will have to live with scandal

Trevor Chappell, the man vilified for underarm delivery in 1981, has strong words

Needing six off the final ball to tie, New Zealand were left outraged by decision

Footage is often replayed when it comes to debates about cricketing scandals

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5545529/Crickets-underarm-bowler-Trevor-Chappell-says-Australia-tampering-culprits-haunted-life.html

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 02:43

And then there's the case of the infamous Ozzie underarm bowling fiasco a few years ago... ;)

Yes. This poor guy — Trevor Chappell, another young patsy at the time, also ordered by his captain, his elder brother — committed a different heinous cricketing sin back in 1981, 36 years ago. He's been reviled ever since, forever haunted by not saying no and refusing to do it.

He bowled ('pitched') a ball along the ground, as the very last ball of the game, when a 'six' (a 'home run') was needed by the opposing New Zealanders to win. Rolling the ball on the ground ('underarm', it's called) made that impossible, of course. This wasn't technically illegal at the time, though no cricketer had done anything like that for 100 years. It was outlawed immediately after.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZPWJbbVwAEATEE.jpg:small

The lessons (for anyone in a leadership position!) appear to be:

If you're going to do something immoral or illegal, don't get a naïve young patsy to do it all for you. (Or lie!) It makes you look like a coward. (This is what's upset the Aussies the most.)
If you do confess to a crime, resign immediately. At least you salvage a few inches of high ground which may be respected later.
Why do it at all? The rewards are minimal and uncertain. The risks are to have your entire career and reputation ruined for life — literally.

etheric underground

27th March 2018, 03:58

It aint a crime if you dont get caught......ahhh silly billy aussie cricketers...you so blatantly got caught.

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 04:06

There's an interesting concept called Catastrophe Theory. That's when something abruptly changes from one stable state to another stable state. Like a bridge falling down, or an earthquake. Or being caught cheating by your partner — or by a nation that pays you.

The personal bridge collapse can come from just ONE crazy, bad decision.

In the model below, the catastrophe is when one skis right off the cliff, so to speak, from 'Utopia' to career-ending 'Disaster'.

Reaching the 'Peak' is like climbing a mountain: hard, steady work. As in any career, or maybe even investing a lot of time and energy and attention to make a relationship go really well.

It can take just one small thing for it all to come crashing down. That end, lower, state (maybe like retirement from a job after years of work) CAN come in a more controlled way. There are other ways to reach the valley floor again without a sudden catastrophe. (Even a divorce, or retiring as Australian cricket captain, can be amicable...)

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--SAl--dFBxM/WBpNOW1nsII/AAAAAAAABYk/q7iJw2CINwsc_8rZVYypvKMMvxQc1V1ZwCLcB/s1600/foldCusp.png

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 04:22

It aint a crime if you dont get caught......ahhh silly billy aussie cricketers...you so blatantly got caught.

Yes, they were as dumb as bricks. :facepalm:

But again, for non-cricketers, here's a simple but important Aesop's Fable. Back in 2012, Brendan McCullum was appointed captain of New Zealand's cricket team.

Popular, inspirational, courageous and highly able, he immediately started transforming the culture in the team by personal example — until, pretty quickly, New Zealand grew to hold the world's admiration and respect as the by far the most sporting cricket team. (They won plenty of games, too. :muscle: )

They still hold that mantle after his retirement. NZ are totally the cricketing world's good guys. AND strong guys. And the nation is REALLY proud of that.

McCullum truly was a hero... the Kiwis see him as a kind of Captain America figure (they call him 'SuperMac'). And maybe he really is. :)

Moral of the story? As Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak famously said in the excellent 2015 film Steve Jobs:

It's not binary: you can be decent and gifted at the same time.

Spindoctor

27th March 2018, 04:29

This is a sideshow to the real life and death drama that is our aussie government whìch has adopted many republican style mantras, destroy the unions, target the poor, jobless, sick, disabled and gut education, health, sell off tax payer funded infrastructuee so our energy providers are now charging rip off prices, banks make billion dollar profits with GFC style rampant corruption, as a Royal Commission is finding out, while holding 1500 refugees in offshore detention for years, with no heed paid to our belief in a fair go for everyone. We have massive immigration bought by paying for trade and university education guaranteeing citizenship, which is doubling Melbourne and Sydneys population, making home ownership hugely expensive, swamping infrastructure rail, road networks, schools, hospitals etc etc. and the Prime Minister Truffles as we call the sanctimonious goldman sachs ex banker, goes tut tut look over there at those highly paid cricketers. Simultaneously his guvmint is pushing for $64 billion in corporate tax cuts for business to allow wage rises and job creation to trickle down to the serf masses even as its been hailed by economists and welfare agencies as an utter waste. Its long overdue for cricketers and other sports and indeed business and politics to get their comeuppance, for a new broom to clean out the crooked elite, and real attention focus instead on the real problems facing the nation

GMB1961

27th March 2018, 04:31

Australian Cricket.
If you break the rules, bend the rules, or manipulate the rules to your advantage you bring the game and our country's sportsmanship values into question. Id be charging and hitting them with a huge fine to those responsible, banning them for life and they should never be allowed to play or represent Australia EVER AGAIN. They have tarnished the game and our country irrevocably. We will be labled cheaters from here on in. Its a disgrace and should be handled quickly, ruthlessly and bought home to face the wrath of the media TODAY. It makes me sick that these "sportsman" would stoop so low as to do this and it undermines everything we teach our kids about being honest in sport and all that they do to grow up as decent human beings. Im extremely embarrassed and saddened by this foolish act and i think that we haven't heard the end of this saga for many years to come.

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 04:35

This is a sideshow

Yes, of course it is.

But here's a question (to you, and all Aussies who are members):

Why is sport, and the hero-worship that goes with it, so sacred to you? And why such a horrified national reaction when there's a fall from grace?

* It's pretty sacred to people of many nations, but ESPECIALLY to Australians. This is not a pointed question, at all... I think I may understand it quite well, but I'd really love to understand it even better.

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 04:45

Id be charging and hitting them with a huge fine to those responsible, banning them for life and they should never be allowed to play or represent Australia EVER AGAIN. They have tarnished the game and our country irrevocably. We will be labled cheaters from here on in. Its a disgrace and should be handled quickly, ruthlessly and bought home to face the wrath of the media TODAY. It makes me sick that these "sportsman" would stoop so low as to do this and it undermines everything we teach our kids about being honest in sport and all that they do to grow up as decent human beings. Im extremely embarrassed and saddened by this foolish act and i think that we haven't heard the end of this saga for many years to come.

I follow cricket closely myself, and I have to say I fully agree. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: I could talk about the cricketing details of all this for hours. :)

A thread like this is a tricky balance! Here, where the majority of the readers and guests are likely to be North American or mainland-European, I'm trying to open up and generalize the many interesting human issues to a wider audience.

The fallen-heroes thing I think is especially interesting for us all. Being a celebrity, even a very very minor one, is TRULY risky. I speak from experience!

Tam

27th March 2018, 06:49

I'm having a difficult time articulating this thought right now, because I think neither in words nor images, and this is a bit complex, so translating it into writing might end up muddying it. My apologies in advance if this post is a bit all-over-the-place. I will try to keep a thread of consistency.

Before I get into it, I'm going to start with a little disclaimer: I don't really give a sh*t about cricket, nor any sport in general, really. I think organized professional sports, like religion, celebrities, and many other things, is just a sort of...distraction. Even if you're agnostic, not into sports, and abhor celebrity culture (like me), you're still guilty of partaking in this distraction. We all are.

For me, it's mainly video games, and browsing the internet endlessly. Also, sugar. And sleeping a lot.

So, while I know pretty much nothing about cricket and who this dude is, Bill seemed to convey the gravity of the whole thing rather well, though, so here are my two cents.

Bill asked why we we do this.

The answer, in a grossly oversimplified answer, boils down to this: because we suffer.

Now, I can practically hear all of your eyes rolling to the back of your heads, but bear with me. This isn't as angsty and melodramatic as it may initially seem.

Humanity, overall, suffers immensely. The reasons for this, we all know: the system pretty much sucks, half the planet is starving to death, we're still so hostile and violent, etc. We look at the world around us, the mundane grind of day-to-day life. Every day, inundated by horrible new headlines. 64 people burned alive in a shopping mall (malls are hellish on the best of days), mostly children. Fire exits blocked for some shady reasons, death toll expected to rise exponentially, poor conditions and fire code to blame for the magnitude of it. Facebook (shocker here) sold all of our information illegally, and seems to have been a key figure in the whole Russia election intervention thing. Kylie Jenner, a rich b*tch who was born into the Kardashian clan and never had to wash a load of laundry in her life, posted a sexy selfie after having been knocked up at 19. It's her first sexy selfie (still, one among tens of thousands, and how she makes almost all of her 50 million dollars) since the birth, and everyone is freaking out about it, because, unlike Kylie, they don't have gorgeous abs, a sexy (fake) ass, and 50 million dollars to their name, all before they could legally drink. So they sort of vicariously live her life through her social media, ignoring their tens of thousands in student loans that will only get worse with the 9% interest, or their job they hate that they have to go back to tomorrow, or their dead marriage and the fact that the last time they had sex, it lasted 2 minutes, she just laid there silently and without moving, and that was 7 months ago.

Then, people realize that, even with all of that, they've got so much to be thankful for: at least they didn't starve to death in a filthy slum, the flies settling on their face because flies know when someone's about to die.

While a lot of us are happy and fulfilled, and the world is teeming with positivity if you look for it, a good chunk of the population is still in a perpetual state of some degree of suffering.

Bill more or less summed it up with the following phrase:

"a search for perfection''

In a world as imperfect as ours, we seek whatever little bits and pieces of not-crappiness we can find. For those who are lucky, it's probably their family, or their dog, or their beach house, or the delicious dinner they get to have that night.

For many more, some because they have nothing else, others because they've become jaded to what they already have, they look elsewhere. Somewhere outside their own little bubble of reality.

Maybe it's Beyoncé. Maybe it's some random girl on YouTube with a little makeup channel and a perfect face. Maybe it's your boss, who drives in every morning in his BMW, and gets to have his own office, with sunlight and a comfy chair and good health insurance.

Why do we do this? Because in our heads, their life is perfect. Beyoncé? She has a gorgeous mansion she bought for 135 million bucks. She might have menstrual cramps like the rest of us, but she gets to lay there in pain in her luxurious sheets, her designer lingerie, looking at the ocean in her giant bedroom while the in-house private chef makes lunch and the maid dusts the living room. Your boss? Well, his wife is pretty hot and he doesn't have acne on his butt like you do.

People don't generally stop and think that maybe Beyoncé can't trust if anyone genuinely likes her, or that their boss bought that BMW on credit, he's divorcing his gold-digging wife, and she gets to have custody of the kids and keep the house, too.

Sure, intellectually, people understand that no one's life is 100% sunshine and flowers, but again: everyone lives in their little bubble, and bubbles are reflective. Human memory is selective. All too often, we dwell on the past, and focus on what's lacking in our lives. Deep down inside, usually subconsciously, we desperately cling to order, to meaning. That's why religion works so well: it's comforting to think that God has a plan for you, individually, and that your mom, who died slowly of pancreatic cancer last year, is in Heaven, kicking it with grandma and your old dog.

Celebrities and major figures, whether we admit or not, end up filling in one of the many holes in our lives. When you're watching an incredible football match, or The Real Housewives, or listening to a sermon, for just that time, the world and all of its bull**** ceases to be of any real, tangible impact to you and your loved ones.

And as we all know, reality can kind of suck, and, well, those celebrities? They live in the same reality we do, and they, too, have something that distracts them, their set of problems in their life, and live on a planet where most of its population lives in abject poverty.

Ewan

27th March 2018, 09:42

I was going to share my pennysworth, but after reading Indigris' post I have nothing to add except a few swearwords, (which she obviously forgot. :Angel:)
[Indigris, I can't quite wrap my head around the fact you are only 22 yrs young. Amazing.]

Well I might add that most of us grow up being told to be good but sooner than later recognise the standard eluded us on occasion, if not all too frequently at times; we then project it onto others - secretly knowing on some level we're passing the buck.

When the Hero fails the sense of dismay is magnified, not only did they drop their torch but they dropped yours too!

Spindoctor

27th March 2018, 10:07

Violet3

27th March 2018, 11:21

well said Spindoctor. There does not seem to be any leadership with moral authority in this country, in any sector I can think of. It's all a bit gutless and embarassing really. The cricket fiasco seems like just another example of the culture of corruption.

Violet3

27th March 2018, 11:51

Why do Aussies love their sport? Sheer blitkreig media coverage . Newspapers devote dozens of pages to rugby union league, soccer and cricket daily while radio and TV have large sections of programming devoted to cricket tests and pre, during and post weekend sport. . It is cheaper for tv to produce talking heads at a desk, with cheap comedy stunts and outragous, misogynistic behaviour thrown in than to a documentary, entertainment or educational contribution The media have close links to the very aggresively self marketed football codes and they play ball to have access to players, clubs, and the perks of corporate boxes , gifts paraphernalia. Sport is also part of school activities with parents encouraged to get their kids involved and doing physical activity rather than gaming . So sporting bodies are keen to be seen as community minded with early involvement for their promotion, advancement and ultimately support and recruitment Sport remains one of the few community gatherings tage in this sad country.as neighbours now surf the net rather than talk over the fence , help with gardens, repairs or just interact. Despite all the connectivity apart from sport we are more isolated and lonely than ever.. especially if you don't embrace sport.

Yep all of that but also, I wonder, is it also our colonial past and convict/ working class history? Football, more than the British cricket game, has always been a national passion, especially for men and boys, with the women on the sidelines cheering and making the scones. It is still one of the only major avenues for Aboriginal kids to get a career, the possibility of fame and a pathway out of serious poverty and disadvantage. Out in isolated regional towns, and certainly in the outback, football is still an important community event and an important social leveller- you might be dirt poor but if you are good at sport you are someone.

Valerie Villars

27th March 2018, 12:19

"Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you."

We humans yearn for the sublime. Whether we represent it or someone or something else does, we still yearn for it. We don't trust ourselves enough to realize that we can embody it or maybe it's just too damn tough to do it. Kind of hard to be sublime when you have menstrual cramps or your stomach is upset.

The hero's journey has to be taken, in order to be a hero. There are no shortcuts. Maybe the pressure of being a perfect hero becomes overwhelming and that is why there is cheating. Perhaps after having risen so high, anything less than a superhero becomes unbearable to the hero. Or maybe the hero was not really a hero to begin with, inside. So, it was inevitable he out himself in some way, shape or form and the rookie was looking outwardly for his heroism instead of inside and he fell too.

The lesson is "be your own hero".

Mark (Star Mariner)

27th March 2018, 13:02

Another good sporting analogy for Americans to liken this to would be the infamous Deflategate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflategate) scandal of a couple of years ago, where the New England Patriots were accused of under-inflating the ball in order to gain an advantage. (An under-inflated ball is easier to throw/catch etc).

As a big cricket fan myself, this has touched a few raw nerves with me. This scandal has been picked apart very well in the posts so far. I applaud Indigris in her heartfelt and deeply candid analysis, and like Ewan, have little more to add other than to register my dismay at this unfolding saga.

It's truly unbelievable. What a fool, Steve Smith! You had it all, but you wanted more. That's what makes this even more shocking. It's not like a team of no-hopers had been caught working an illegal advantage, and cheating on the sly. Smith was top of Australia, and Australia were top of the cricketing pile. This could be where Smith's mind was at. Because Australia weren't losing at the time! He didn't just want to win the game, he wanted to win hard, thoroughly, this game and probably every game. It's again similar to the New England Pats - also one of the top teams (in gridiron). So why cheat when you're already at the top? Because when you've got it all, you just want more. They know this mantra well on Wall St. It's capitalism's highest virtue. Greed feeds an even greater need for greed.

Greed, it will truly bring you down in the end - suddenly, sometimes violently.

Even as a pom, as the Aussies would say, I can still imagine how they feel. Their image has been destroyed in a few crazy minutes on a cricket pitch. Integrity left in ruins. The damage done to the sport feels less important than what it has done to national identity. I totally get that. If it had been England, I would be embarrassed beyond words. In sports, you feel that the players of the team you follow, when they pull on that shirt, are somehow representing you personally. I know it's all illusion, and sport is just a distraction at the end of the day. But that's how it feels. And when they do something like this, you feel the sting of shame as if it's your own. That's why when something like this happens, the righteous outrage is so strong, and why you demand the culprits' heads. It's to defend yourself, and to clear your name.

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 13:22

Hi, Folks: I've just tuned in here, breakfast US/Ecuador time. Thanks for all the VERY wise and intelligent and interesting comments. There are huge archetypal human issues under the surface of a 'mere' sports story, which is why I started the thread. I do appreciate the responses and the thought that's gone behind them.

Of all the excellent comments, one happened to stand out for me, and surprised me as it did so. I'll spend some time today reflecting on WHY this might have struck such a strong chord. But it must be the core trajectory of thousands of books, movies and plays worldwide:

What a fool, [insert anyone's name here]! You had it all, but you wanted more.

Kryztian

27th March 2018, 14:57

Bill asked why we we do this.

The answer, in a grossly oversimplified answer, boils down to this: because we suffer.

Humanity, overall, suffers immensely. The reasons for this, we all know: the system pretty much sucks, half the planet is starving to death, we're still so hostile and violent, etc. We look at the world around us, the mundane grind of day-to-day life.

Thanks for your post Indigris. While I think your analysis is great, I might disagree about what the underlying cause is. Instead of “suffering”, I would say that the cause is boredom, hopelessness. People are bored, find the world meaningless, and allow the media to do the work of finding meaning for them, which it obliges to do, by parading an array of celebrities from sports, Hollywood, business and constructing a drama out of there lives as “human interest stories” so that they get good Nielsen ratings and suck our attention into the TV.

Like you, I know nothing and care little about cricket or most other sports (included those paraded before my consciousness by the main stream media.) On the one hand, I have great respect for those who see cricket as a craft, as a human activity that requires giving up one’s mind and body to strive for excellence, as a set of techniques to be understood and analyzed if one is to succeed, as an opportunity to utilize ones human potential. The lessons one could learn from being a good cricket player and the skills one might derive, could have great benefit to other things one does later in life. On the other hand, the media, turns cricket (and other sports, and arts and other human activities) in to a spectacle, and turns the craftsmen into “celebrities.” Once the media does this, there are million of people who know little about cricket, who find themselves oohing and aahing before their television altar, yet few of them gain any real knowledge of what the craft is, and who the craftsmen really are. The media turns them into “household names” and they appear for 15 second media intervals as if they are up on a pedestal. Then one day, they topple from the heights and there is oo-ing and moaning from the millions. Most of them would never look for a deeper explanation like “catastrophe theory” to explain what really happens. The whole drama for them just creates a hopelessness and a lack of faith in their fellow human beings.

If you watch Norman Mailers movie “Rollerball”, this is what enables the strength of the corporatist state. We loose faith in our fellow human beings, and allow faceless, inhuman institutions to take control over our lives. We fail to notice that the medium that brings us this message is the mainstream media, part of the corporatist state, and that this media corporations are just a part of the secretive organizations and meetings (Council of Foreign Relations, Bilderberg, etc. etc. etc.) that are hell bent on taking our rights away, keeping us disinformed, taking away our health, livelihood, savings, etc.

In the early 21st century, the media seems to want to take every form of human activity that can be practiced with deft and artistry into a spectacle. Even the act of cleaning ones home can be turned into an episode of “The Real Housewives of ...”. The television set, which was once considered a diversion from the drudgery of reality, is now, as the TV set tells us, reality.

But turning off the TV set, divorcing our selves from the media, isn’t always the answer. We also need to look for our own answers instead of the ones Bilderberg and friends are trying to feed us. There is a real reality behind the manufactured one. And that is what Bill is trying to do here, trying to figure out what really happened to lead a craftsman and integrity figure down this path.

Of course the corporate media raised Steve Smith to great, great heights and then showed him falling to great, deep, depths. But if we peer behind a media curtain, we will understand him as human, prone to faults, but also having the possibility of great success, and if we understand this, we understand that we human beings, and not our faceless corporate overlords, are the ones that are going to build a better world.

BMJ

27th March 2018, 15:33

Well great posts by all the australians saying it as it is. :happythumbsup:

With plenty of blue skies and warm weather what to do?

Might as well play sport, and this has morphed into the religion it is today for Australians no matter if it is afl, cricket, v8 supercars, rugby, footy or soccer.

You are born into a team and this team is handed down from one generation to the next like a prized family heirloom.

The sunday mass is equivalent to the weekly game played out by your team.

And an attendance of an event is a raptures occasion, just ask any true blue aussie that has attended that pilgrimage to Mecca the annual Bathhurst v8 supercar race.

And cheating by the highest members of your religion/team, such as Cameron Bancroft scrapping clean the cricket ball, is the equivalent of blasphemy of the highest order.

Resulting at the least in exile to some foreign land, just ask Trevor Chappell, or at the worse being hung, drawn and quartered.

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 15:42

I submitted this to the Guardian newspaper, which was inviting comments from the public.

* Explanatory note: Warner was Smith's vice captain, now widely rumored to have been the brains behind the scheme to cheat in this way.

~~~

Smith, Warner and the Human Condition

Thought for the day. (Maybe!)

This is all an archetype of the human condition that would make Joseph Campbell think hard.

How we always need (and create) heroes and heroines, and how they almost always let us down. It's like a search for perfection (out there, in others), and then when it all goes wrong, we crucify our saviors, one by one.

Heroes and heroines are hard to find, so we project them on to marriage partners, celebrities — and sports personalities. That quite often ends in tears.

And if Warner actually IS the villain — another archetype, of course — we have the fallen hero (Smith) who was fatally tempted by his darker, brotherly shadow. And then there's Bancroft, the young patsy, who was probably too afraid, or naive, or trusting, to just say no.

Shakespeare could write a whole play about all this, and it might stand with the very best as an object lesson for everyone in the audience: all of us fragile mortals.

~ Bill Ryan, a Guardian reader from Ecuador.

Foxie Loxie

27th March 2018, 15:55

"Say it ain't so, Joe!" (Good old Gary Cooper movie) Sports in general do seem to be a kind of "distraction" to take us out of the everyday, ho-hum existence most of us lead. I always look forward to the College Football Season, myself. Here we have Jerry Sandusky & I still feel bad about Joe Paterno being sullied because of someone else's behavior. :silent:

The same "cheater" analogy can be drawn in the realm of politics. There are some of us in the U.S. hoping our Big Time Cheaters will be given their comupence; they have been able to "get away with it" for so many years they no longer seem to live in "reality"....all that matters is how much they can "get away with". I'm sure we each have had personal experience with such people.

I remember, when I was younger & into my adult years I always thought "older" people would have "the answers", just because they had lived longer. :ROFL: But we are each at a different phase of development. The name Tiger Woods comes to mind in this vein of thought. A Sense of Entitlement seems to creep in when one is given such public adoration...The Rules no longer apply to us if we're "famous"!! ;)

Mark (Star Mariner)

27th March 2018, 15:58

Good piece Bill, I heartily applaud it, although I do have to wonder what part actual management played in this, namely Lehmann, and Saker the bowling coach. I find it highly unlikely that they are guiltless, that they knew nothing about the plan to meddle with the ball. Surely nothing goes on in the field of play that they are not aware of. Have they even come forward to speak to the press yet? I've not seen a word.

Kryztian

27th March 2018, 16:12

I submitted this to the Guardian newspaper, which was inviting comments from the public.

Bill your comments are poetic, insightful, and yet succinct, the type of material that the Guardian just might run.

Of course, once you become a published Guardian writer, you could then approach them with a front page tabloid story on the Anglo Saxon Mission (http://projectcamelot.org/lang/en/anglo_saxon_mission_presentation_transcript_en.html) or the Charles interview a/k/a Rulers of the World (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQZTghux9DE). Do you think they might go for that??? ;)

Mike

27th March 2018, 17:07

Right, how often do we hear about people who meet their heroes and walk away disappointed?

And of course they're disappointed, because they've assigned these people characteristics and expectations that they couldn't possibly live up to.

The men who cheated in cricket are clear examples of moral failure, but here I'm talking about people we think of as heroes who live pretty exemplary lives, but still disappoint a certain group of people. Maybe it shouldn't, but this still amazes me.

Ewan

27th March 2018, 18:45

:offtopic: (maybe?)

It takes a remarkable human being, I feel, to have developed a sound and decent set of morals by the mid-twenties. But then again I am only speaking from my own perspective, at that age I was as liable to make the wrong decision as the right and morals never really came into it. I was in my mid 30's before I began to get the idea it was actually important. Now, thankfully, for me it is cast in stone. I don't really know how that happened, I can't think of any single defining moment - but I basically didn't mature until I was about 35 years old.

It is a poisonous world we live in and the temptations are many. At the age of 20 I had a crossroads moment that could have led to a life of crime, it was circumstance that prevented it rather than any thought on my part. Or was it? 20 something years later to have a thought break into your head that wasn't your own, well that was certainly a sobering moment that made you ponder life in its entirety.

:focus:

Cardillac

27th March 2018, 18:49

@Bill and all other readers

since when has cheating at/manipulation of anything ever been new?- cheating/manipulation has been amongst us since air-

if one has read Cathy O'Brien's "Trance Formation of America" all sports events are rigged (gosh!)- but I think this isn't anything new-

even tennis star Andy Murray (sp.?) publically admitted (and even named names) of how certain tennis aces were bribed big-time (mafia betting) to lose certain matches-

and cheating is new?

Larry

Nasu

27th March 2018, 20:17

It's a shame for those two and Oz, it will linger in doubts, jibes, sarcasm, stand-up comedy and ill will and fights in pubs and bars for years to come. The fact that it was set up across the whole management team - so called, makes it more shocking and I think compounds the cheat. The side fact that it was also so poorly executed is neither here nor there. For me the real sadness of this cheat is against it being team wide for Oz's finest, so called, so that makes one wonder how many times they got away with this elsewhere before? I'm sure losing sides are re examining footage of their plays as we type...

Of course like all first time offenders when caught they said that they promise it was their first time and they won't ever do it again. It will be a long while before Oz live this one down. When was "picking" abolished anyway? I want to say it was the late 1890's. They need to spring clean their pavilion if they want to be trusted again internationally, this sort of behavior is certainly not cricket..x... N

Bill Ryan

27th March 2018, 21:22

For anyone who may be interested: (and the archetypal lessons from all this are escalating :) )

There was an eagerly-awaited press conference about the entire affair a few hours ago, which was unbelievably badly conducted, left many heads shaking, and has added fuel to the raging fires.

The CEO of Cricket Australia, facing the press and seeming himself like a guilty man, refused three times (like Peter in the Garden) to state explicitly that the team had cheated, and looked even more uncomfortable than poor Sheriff Joe Lombardo in Las Vegas. :)

There are now claims this is the Aussie sports equivalent of Watergate. There were punishments for three of the players, but the team's coach, a widely disliked thug of a man, was let off scot-free. What did he know, and when did he know it? Are we now seeing a hamfisted coverup by the administrators of the sport? What action might the Aussie Prime Minister now take?

Again, without going into all the fine details of the affair, the interesting lesson I can see from all of this is how utterly important it is to demonstrate strong, decisive, swift, transparent leadership following the revealed failings of others.

When a community (or a nation) DEMANDS decisions and justice, and isn't given that, then they can get VERY angry indeed. This is all a kind of microcosmic case study (though don't tell any Aussie this is minor!!) of many, many really serious issues in the world today.

Ewan

27th March 2018, 22:15

this sort of behavior is certainly not cricket

:happythumbsup:

Bill Ryan

28th March 2018, 00:34

A few extracts from this thoughtful piece in the Sydney Morning Herald (https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/disgraced-new-bradman-left-to-search-for-salvation-20180328-p4z6m1.html).

~~~

History was guiding Smith to the place reserved not only for revered Australian captains but master batsmen. To see him collapse on that road is a seminar in fallibility.

Wrapped inside Smith's cheating in South Africa is personal disgrace, a public crucifixion and a mystery about human psychology. What makes people risk everything when they have already won life's lottery? What disconnect stops them seeing the firepit they are walking towards?

These are eternal questions, for all living souls, not just cricket captains too deluded to see that using improvised sandpaper to change a ball under the gaze of HD cameras was bound to be spotted, and then jumped on as a crime against the Australian homeland.

The cycle we are in is: detection, punishment, fallout. And it is the fallout that is most complex, because it places Smith at the old crossroads between ignominy and salvation.

He has no way of knowing which way the forgiveness bit will go. His sentence will end, he will return to his business, and he will doubtless construct a PR strategy that gives him the best chance of getting on with his job in something approaching peace.

But you would not fancy his chances of escaping the rolling vengeance and ridicule that accompany such acts; he has no control over the society and culture that may mark him out as a villain unfit for cricket's pantheon.

Wherever you stand on this, the possibility that Smith will always be a pariah - for the orchestrated and craven nature of the offence, as much as the transgression itself - is one full of pathos and waste.

He was being offered a double bounty of towering scores with the bat and a place at the head of Australian cricket. Instead, his downfall has become almost a parody of what happens to icons when they lose contact with reality. Smith has disappeared from WeetBix cereal boxes. No longer is his the face that launches Australia's day.

Many will not care, but he must be in turmoil. Hell must be raging through his soul. He has to live with the knowledge that he gambled everything he has worked for.

People in professional sport are often incapable of seeing beyond actions to consequences. When Smith needed someone to tell him that ball-tampering might destroy him, no one was there, so he ploughed on to this excruciating outcome.

Australia's players failed the game, but they also failed each other.

Their minds were not open to what would happen to the perpetrators if the plot went wrong. This blindness is common in sport, and in cheating. The world's best batsman got greedy. The small potential gains from that are eclipsed by egregious losses.

Daozen

28th March 2018, 01:42

My Dad's hero was Geoffery Boycott when I was younger. He was really into cricket, and played on the work sports team. When I got to Bali I was sick for 2-3 days, so I spent 48 hours reading an Ian Botham biography. That was weird. Sitting in a thatched tropical compund reading about an ex-cricketer.

Regarding sports in general, I hated team sport when I was a kid, cos I didn't like physical contact with other guys. Like Rugby. Why would anyone want to spend two hours running after and groping other men? I like those guys that do the Hakka at the start of NZ Rugby matches. They are awe-inspiring, beasts of men. Apart from that, Rugby just looks like a giant version of kiss-chase. I played it once in school. It was even worse than football. Someone threw the ball at me. Because I had the ball, 5 boys started running towards me with their arms outstretched. I don't need that. So I threw the ball at someone else, and they started chasing him.

Then Jarvis Cocker and Brett Anderson came along and made it OK not to like football.

The only sport I ever liked was mountain biking. I think it's good that there's a culture of weekend sport and exercise down under. It'll keep people fit and healthy into middle age, which is something the West sorely needs. Sport at the weekend is awesome. OTOH, hero worship and listening to people droning on about sports strategy over beers for hours is painful. Especially American Football, Football and Baseball. I always stayed out of sports conversations cos I liked guitars. Growing up in England in the 80s not liking football is weird. There were only about 5-10% of us in any class who didn't like it. I used to work in factories in the summer, and I used to dread the "Who do you support mate?" question. Hahaha.

Look at the beer-gut pundits out there who can talk about the NFL + premier league for hours, but can't do one pushup. Faux-masculinity.

Sport can be a good thing. It's better that kids grow up idolizing footballers than dissolute celebs. Apart from the occasionaly drug scandal, most footballers are relatively clean living. Sport should be played, not watched. Alex Jones is right, sport has been used to hijack men's strategic intelligence by making them focus on inane nonsense.

Mark (Star Mariner)

28th March 2018, 15:10

So it now seems that David Warner was the chief instigator of the plan to "artificially alter the condition of the ball", or in normal English – which escaped the vocabulary of Cricket Australia – "cheat". Warner is a brilliant batsman, but even some of his own teammates likened him to a thug. He's already been fined this series for an altercation with SA keeper Quinton de cock. Now he faces a one-year ban, and to be honest, I think he got off light.

It's interesting that Smith may not have played a direct part in all this, but he knew about Warner's plan (in the dressing room), heard the plan being discussed, and then walked away saying he "didn't want to know". That's not really excusable. If, as a captain, he becomes aware of cheating by the players on his team, he is, in my opinion, passively endorsing that cheating by overlooking it. He's also banned for a year, and I think deservedly so.

Bill Ryan

28th March 2018, 15:16

One of the delights of being a cricket follower in the Americas is that one wakes up in times like this to see a deluge of more news articles (and outrage!) from England, India, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

I'm interested in the sport, and of course I absolutely know this is micro-trivial compared with many ultra-serious current world events.

But for me the real interest is the VERY VERY deep human archetype that's on full display here.

The truth is now coming out... just like Watergate.

There are four main characters in the drama:

The coach (Lehmann, an ugly thug) — who like Richard Nixon, denies all knowledge.
The captain (Smith, the fallen golden hero, and a supreme talent) — who knew the plot, but did NOT prevent it.
The vice captain (Warner, another thug, who it's now revealed masterminded the entire thing) — who coached the patsy how to cheat.
The patsy (Bancroft, who was caught) — the gullible rookie, but still a grown man who never said NO.

I wonder how many times all this has happened in history and beyond. Parents, teach your sport-loving children. :)

The story's still not over. The Watergate analogy holds, with MANY experienced ex-players insisting that the coach MUST have known. As with Nixon, the interrogation lamp has now moved to him.

***

It's also fascinating to watch public opinion veer and wheel like a huge flock of birds.

There's now growing sympathy for the patsy and the fallen hero.
There's NO sympathy at all for the two thugs.
The Indian media is talking a lot about karma. :)

And for anyone of biblical bent reading this, this is of course ALL about temptation. As I wrote above (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?102247-Unfair-Dinkum-it-s-not-cricket...-or-how-Australia-is-in-shock-about-a-fallen-hero&p=1216977&viewfull=1#post1216977), what makes people risk everything when they've already won life's lottery?

Maybe the Devil also follows cricket. :)

Mark (Star Mariner)

28th March 2018, 18:11

Yes, there are so many interesting (human) sides to this drama. And implications.

I watched Smith express his profound sorrow for his part in the affair, but I wonder if it was rooted more in self-pity, because he and his players were caught red-handed. If he felt bad about cheating at all, as per what a healthy conscience should dictate, then he wouldn't have cheated in the first place. Would he? After all, he knows the laws of Cricket.

I think he and Warner etc did it because they arrogantly thought they could win an advantage in the game and get away with it. Laws be damned. And this begs the question: have they done this before, in previously series? I think many cricket fans would like to know.

Bill Ryan

28th March 2018, 18:19

Bluegreen

28th March 2018, 18:33

Lots of things this American doesn't understand here thank you for posting
USA version:

Game Plan
http://memegenerator.net/img/instances/58288229/if-you-aint-cheating-you-aint-trying.jpg

Result
http://thecomeback.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bob_Kraft-George_Bush-Bill_Belichick.jpg

;)

Mark (Star Mariner)

28th March 2018, 19:00

have they done this before, in previously series? I think many cricket fans would like to know.

Of course! Warner (the thug) was teaching Bancroft (the patsy) how to do it. Think about that just for a moment. :)

I agree, that's a good point! You don't 'teach' something unless you already know aaaall about it.

Their denial just doesn't wash. I was doubtful before, and now I'm sure. It's a lie.

I'm hoping some sleuth or other with a ton of time on his hands will pour through hours of footage from previous tests, looking for tell-tale signs of tampering. Then again, I don't know to what end. Apparently, the ICC have a kind of statute of limitations in place, lasting for only 18 hours (after a match ends), when 'evidence' of wrong-doing, foul-play etc, can be taken into consideration. Even if evidence is found after that time, it can't be acted on.

The court of public opinion is of course very different. This story may run and run.

Mark (Star Mariner)

28th March 2018, 19:09

Call me a cynic, but I also noticed that the one-year ban Cricket Australia dished out arguably to their two best players, expires juuuust in time for both to be eligible for the Ashes series next summer.

Bill Ryan

28th March 2018, 20:11

Back to myth and legend. :)

***

There's a story in Hindu mythology about the eldest Pandava, Yudishthira. It was said that he was an exemplar of moral rectitude, who never lied. Such was his virtue in this regard, that he actually floated six inches above the earth, never actually touching the ground.

And then in the battle at Kurukshetra, his former teacher Drona, fighting for the opposite side, was wreaking havoc on the Pandava forces, and he was told the only way to stop the slaughter was to somehow "get at" Drona. So a war elephant with the same name as Drona's son (Ashwatthama) was killed by his younger brother Bhima, who then shouted at Drona: "Ashwatthama is dead! Ashwatthama is dead!"

Drona, for whom his son was everything, didn't want to believe his ears, so he looked across at Yudishthira and asked: "Is this true?"

And Yudishthira shouted: "It is true. Ashwattahma [sotto voce: "the elephant"] is dead!

At that, believing in Yudishtira's unbending integrity, Drona gave up on life, tossed aside his weapons and adopted the pose of mediation, only to have his head cut off by his old enemy a few minutes later.

The story goes that, as he said those fatal words, Yudishthira's feet finally touched the ground: never again did he float above mortal men - he had become one among them instead.

***

What's happened to Smith is similar. No longer will he be an untouchable, levitating saint, separate from us all. His feet might now touch the earth, but that only means he's even more human — as are we all.

:flower:

Bluegreen

28th March 2018, 22:57

Like the rolling ball thing. I don't get that. I get that the rule had not seen the field for a hundred years and it was unfair but so what? I mean if its there in the rule book there it is right? Teams will use a 'run out the clock' strategy and no player or fan has any problems with that. I don't get the disgrace and shame thing. Am I picking up a 'cricket as moral high ground' vibe that I am unaware of? Is that correct? Or am I mything thomething elthe completely?

:confused:

Bill Ryan

28th March 2018, 23:36

Or am I missing something else completely?

Maybe! Like Watergate, it was more than a burglary (the crime). The 'President' (Smith) knew about it beforehand, but took no action. And when caught, Smith (like Nixon!) lied first to the officials, and then to the press. The 'burglar' (the eager-to-please, naive rookie patsy) was set up to do the dirty work. No-one protected him, and now his career is in ruins.

So it's really about integrity (and hubris!) on all levels, as a big-picture, human issue, with a ton of moral lessons to emerge from all this.... not just one tiny little thing of roughing up the leather skin of a cricket ball.

Daozen

29th March 2018, 00:55

Frank Herbert: “The bottom line of the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes."

I 'd never thought about how these sports stories are archetypal dramas played out on the world stage. Maybe we crave the scandal and dirt in sport as much as the teamsmanship. The Zidane headbutt of 2006 comes to mind. He ruined his career in 10 seconds. So Zidane teaches us, by negative example, restraint and patience. Then there was the the Lance Armstrong doping scandal. There's something bittersweet about watching a hero fall. It subtly pushes you to not externalize greatness, and recover your own heroism.

Cricket is supposed to be a gentleman's sport, so it's even worse to see people cheating.

Bribes to underperform are common in all sports, including Cricket:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_cricket_spot-fixing_scandal

Bluegreen

29th March 2018, 02:22

Am I being mythquoted?

Full disclosure: What I know about cricket could fit on a nymph's back but in the Ozzies' defense they did come up with Australian rules football which may possibly be the world's most entertaining spectator sport ...

:)

I'm still trying to understand why rolling the ball on the last play to win the game is so bad. Seems like something you would laugh at and forget about, congratulate the guy who thought of it and move on. It produces outrage? A 'hated man'? I was mystified by the announcer's immediate reaction (thanks for the vid Kiwi) declaring it to be "disgraceful."

Disgraceful?

Bill Ryan

29th March 2018, 12:19

Disgraceful?
Yep. :)

Here's a direct analogy, for any Americans reading. Just imagine that no-one had ever thought to write a rule into baseball that the pitcher couldn't roll the ball along the ground... because no-one imagined anyone would ever actually do that, and no-one ever had.

Then, in an important game (an international one), when the opposition needed a Home Run to win off the last ball pitched — and they just MIGHT have done it — the pitcher does just that. The batter has zero fair chance. He can't possibly do it, no matter how good he is.

The key word there is fair. The rules of any game are intended to make things fair, so it's an equal, balanced contest. That's the entire idea of sport. The episode encapsulated the difference between what cricketers always call 'the spirit of the game' and 'the laws of the game'.

Immediately after the incident, that rule was clarified and rewritten so that it could never possibly happen again.

Bill Ryan

29th March 2018, 19:47

The Shakespearean drama continues. (Wow.) This is the biggest cataclysm in world cricket in a couple of generations. It's pretty big in the context of ALL sports.

First, a reminder:

There are four main characters in the drama:

The coach (Lehmann, an ugly thug) — who like Richard Nixon, denies all knowledge.
The captain (Smith, the fallen golden hero, and a supreme talent) — who knew the plot, but did NOT prevent it.
The vice captain (Warner, another thug, who it's now revealed masterminded the entire thing) — who coached the patsy how to cheat.
The patsy (Bancroft, who was caught) — the gullible rookie, but still a grown man who never said NO.

I wonder how many times all this has happened in history and beyond. Parents, teach your sport-loving children. :)

Parents, yes, pay heed: teach your children well. The fallen hero came right apart in a press conference this morning. It was extremely hard to watch.

http://banglanewspost.com/assets/uploads/2018/03/%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%81%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A5-350x249.jpg

It's also fascinating to watch public opinion veer and wheel like a huge flock of birds.Many of the same voices demanding his head a couple days ago are now clamoring for leniency and sympathy, some now seriously concerned for his well-being.

The poor young guy was in pieces, and several times could barely speak. He will have earned the instant forgiveness of 20 million angry Australians. You can't fake heartbroken remorse like that.

The patsy (Bancroft) gave a similar conference, and his voice wavered several times. He was unquestionably desperately regretful. He, too, is a good man.

The coach (Lehmann, thug #1) has just now resigned, giving a third press conference. That was totally the right thing to do, and maybe the only good outcome out of all of this. The game is WAY best without him. But he actually had almost no choice. Everything he'd presided over was destroyed.

And what of thug #2 (Warner, the vice captain), who set the entire thing up? He was widely disliked. But psychologists are now wading in: he came from a bad background on the wrong side of the tracks, had little education, and was a muscular, streetfighting bruiser to his core. Was that all his fault?

And he, too, said sorry to everyone... on Twitter.

***

Now, after the meat grinder has finally stopped churning, some healing might start to happen.

The final international match in the bloodstained series between Australia and South Africa, the battlefield where this all took place, starts in a few hours time: exactly as Shakespeare would have written it.

It'd be nice to see the South Africans (11 good men) and the Australians (8 good men, all shattered, + 3 good men in replacement) shake hands in friendship before the battle is renewed. It really is possible that some further good might come of all this.

:flower:

Bill Ryan

29th March 2018, 20:42

Foxie Loxie

30th March 2018, 17:22

"Speak for yourself, John Smith!" ;) Isn't that why you started Avalon?! Thank you, Dear Man!! :bearhug:

Bill Ryan

30th March 2018, 19:49

It'd be nice to see the South Africans (11 good men) and the Australians (8 good men, all shattered, + 3 good men in replacement) shake hands in friendship before the battle is renewed. It really is possible that some further good might come of all this.

:flower:

The start of an epilogue, maybe. What I envisaged is already happening.

The South African captain, his sworn adversary on the field and himself a decent but very tough man, has just reached out privately to Smith, who's 5 years his junior, with sincere words that included 'respect' and 'compassion'. It's reported that Smith very greatly appreciated that.

That's leadership in action, right there. Real leadership in any endeavor most necessarily extends beyond just your own team. That's hard for many to understand, and even harder to embody.

... And, amazingly, has continued to happen. The South African captain went on to encourage everyone to be KIND. And exactly as I'd visualized, on the initiative of the new Australian captain, the two teams shook hands out on the field before the start of the new (and last) game.

While this may seem to be a tiny thing, in cricket this never happens before a game starts. So there may be a new dawn here.

* Aside: for the few people reading this who are interested in the astonishing drama, and may know a lot about cricket, its rich history, the complex details of the incident, and all the personalities involved, the comments sections in these two articles — thousands of them — are VERY well worth reading.

Hundreds of highly articulate and smart people weigh in, from Britain and Australia, definitely not always agreeing. Every aspect of the affair was turned inside out. Some of the posts from readers are long, thoughtful, intelligent, perceptive, and VERY well written mini-articles in themselves. Recommended, for anyone who cares. :)

https://theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/mar/28/david-warner-ball-tampering-ban-australia-interview (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/mar/28/david-warner-ball-tampering-ban-australia-interview) (2110 comments)

https://theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/mar/29/smith-and-bancroft-had-to-front-up-then-break-down (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/mar/29/smith-and-bancroft-had-to-front-up-then-break-down) (1128 comments)

Bill Ryan

31st March 2018, 15:13

The human story rolls on. More happened yesterday morning Australian time. That, too, was hard to watch.

Here's Warner, the disliked thug, and ex vice-captain, in action... yelling foul abuse at the South Africans. (Who, as karma would dictate, are right now methodically taking the Australians apart in their final game.)

http://projectavalon.net/Warner.jpg

How are the mighty fallen. Here's Warner the man, facing the press at last, several days after the others. His beautiful young wife, an innocent in all this, was sobbing at the back of the room.

http://www.newstimes.co.in/Images/31-03-2018151021Australiaball1.jpg

The Watergate analogy rolls on as well. He repeatedly sidestepped pointed questions about exactly what had happened and who else was involved. He repeated the mantra, after pausing at length each time, that he just had to be responsible for his own actions in the affair, for which he deeply apologized. He left no doubt that the story was far more extensive, and that more people were implicated. But he named no-one.

For any Americans reading this (if they are!): it makes no logic for the batters to be covertly messing with the ball, if the pitchers don't know — and also surely the coach. My guess is that it'll take time, but many people will get dragged into all this in the coming weeks and months, including quite a few in former teams going back years.

It's always said that rugby is a thug's game played by gentlemen, and soccer is a gentleman's game played by thugs. :) Cricket, meanwhile, is meant to be a gentleman's game played by gentlemen; but that's been an illusion for a couple of decades now. Just maybe, this cathartic clean-out — a draining of a different swamp — will make some difference.

Cardillac

31st March 2018, 18:37

why do so many people put such stock on sports events?- they're a rigged illusion- they're games, a diversion- how many people invest their own self-identity and self-WORTH in sports teams/events? ("WE won! or WE lost!") where the observer had nothing whatsoever to do with any team; they didn't personally play; don't even personally know any single player but refer to their selected, preferred team as "we"

Larry

happyuk

31st March 2018, 18:56

HaveBlue

1st April 2018, 12:16

None of this will be surprising to us New Zealanders as we are well used to the cheating Australians in any sport be it Rugby, Rugby League or Cricket and the infamous under arm bowling of Greg Chappel in the early 80s. (yes we have a long memory and Australia has a long history of this style of 'sportsmanship')
More recently we have the Womens Rowing incident where a rower simply stopped pulling and handed victory to another team. Match fixing? And now this! Will they not ever learn?

Crying and being sorry is a charade acted out only when caught red handed. Denial and contempt is the more usual standard fare.

This is disgraceful for them and their poor countrymen (including visiting tourists to NZ) who are mocked and ridiculed as a result despite these incidents having nothing to do with them personally. We bring it up in jest whenever we get the chance but the stinging truth of it does cut to the bone of these poor wretched souls, even of those not in any way responsible.

I feel really sorry for Australia (especially my Aussie cousins in Perth) but not those who so often bring that great nation into such disrepute. They are after all a penal colony originally and old habits die hard I guess.

P.S. While I'm here d'ya think you could elect a Prime Minister that could last in the job at least until the next election cycle? That would really help with your image on the world stage during these very trying times.

Bill Ryan

1st April 2018, 14:36

why do so many people put such stock on sports events?

What a great question. There's the passion while playing, and the passion while supporting.

Kurt Hahn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Hahn), the German educator who founded the Outward Bound schools, famously stated that participation in outdoor adventure pursuits such as mountaineering and sailing were "the moral equivalent of war".

He was committed to young people growing and maturing personally in overcoming not other people, but tackling natural adversarial circumstances that demanded courage, honor, teamwork, commitment, problem solving skills, and decisiveness in extreme conditions.

The Greeks had much the same idea when they founded the Olympic Games. The same qualities were required, in an arena that DID involve 'fighting' others, but ritualistically, and not in unforgiving mortal combat. The ideal was to put on display all that could be best about being human.

We still have the same need to challenge ourselves, and fight with our colleagues to survive and thrive — whether it's battling to survive in a gale at sea, a storm on a mountain, or when under immense pressure on a sports field. And if we can't do it personally, we do it as armchair combatants by projecting ourselves into the personas of the participants. I think it's part of the core of the human psyche.

Innocent Warrior

9th April 2018, 05:02

In response to your request to hear from Aussies to better understand the nation’s passion for sports, the song below (lyrics on screen) says a lot. I was Victorian growing up, the main two sports were AFL (VFL back then) and cricket, the song is the primary theme song for the AFL.

E3TBPgXrPLc

I haven’t watched that game in decades and I still know all the lyrics to that song (also our family’s football club song, Carlton, the mighty blues).

There are three primary elements to this phenomena; values, bonding and media. The media frames the sports with hero worship, what you see in the media is not an accurate reflection of the nation as a whole, the majority don’t take that too seriously.

More potent is the ritual of the sports, cricket in summer, football through the winter. It’s when the families and friends came together (at someone’s home or the pub), barracking for their team, which was paired with beer and meat pies, that’s about as Australian as you can get.

The morals; being fair dinkum (honest), keeping the bastards honest and giving everyone a fair go are core values of being Australian, these values are strongly reflected in good sportsmanship.

Bill Ryan

10th April 2018, 09:08

The morals; being fair dinkum (honest), keeping the bastards honest and giving everyone a fair go are core values of being Australian, these values are strongly reflected in good sportsmanship.

Yes. That's the myth! The problem was that in reality, much of that fell by the wayside quite a while back. This is why the Indian sporting media, who've been following this drama closely, have been talking gleefully about karma. :)

The history is way too complicated (and boring to non-cricketers!) to document here, but for a couple of decades now the Australian cricket team has been widely disliked worldwide. They've been described as 'a pack of wild dogs'. They're boorish, abusive, dish out horrific insults to good people while playing, and now the schadenfreude* (that's a word not used too often on Avalon!) has been rampant.

Two examples from MANY, that need little comment:

A few months ago, the Australian fielders continually made disparaging remarks to English batsman Jonny Bairstow about his father's suicide, in an attempt to put him off while he was batting. (It failed: Bairstow is a strong character.)
More recently, in the series of games that culminated in all the drama, one of the South African batsmen had a relative that was injured in a train accident. The Aussies were going 'choo choo' to him while he was batting. (That, too, failed. But they were trying hard.)

The Australian public knew about all this, and also disliked their own team... hence the huge reaction in Australia to the proven cheating. It was a case of the team themselves being so carried away by their 'win-at-all-costs- mentality that they were blind to everything, and justified whatever they did. Cricket Australia, the sport's governing body, has now ordered a wide review of 'team culture'. Many years too late, but better late than never.

* Schadenfreude: pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.