It's a sad day....

for Cricket Australia as well as a sad day for cricket. The series, a great one, is going to be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Forgive me but I'm old school cricket and it hurts me to see the game disgraced.

All and sundry now suddenly have an opinion, those who think of the game as a bore, those who never comment but at a moment like this suddenly appear and jump to the moral high ground, those who have never sat through a five day game only to see it washed out by rain or end in a draw, those in this forum who rarely comment, one in particular who has never ever commented on a game of cricket, suddenly in cavalier style....has one. 

My world of cricket deserves better. My world of cricket is about men of strong body and mind who do battle not asking or expecting any favour.....men who showcase their talent and skill and men who fight to the end to win fair and square. I'm going to try and remember this series for the right reasons, not for the disgraceful cheating of the Australian team, the wonderful century by the legendary AB under pressure, the graceful century by Elgar who appeared talentless and limited in stroke-play in the earlier Tests and then of course the emergence of a future great in Aiden Markram...our best batting prospect since the retirement of Jaques Kallis.

I suspect David Warner to have played a role, I suspect he became overwhelmed by the fear of losing to South Africa and his hate of South Africans. Collectively the decision to cheat has ruined all that's gone before, Richie Benaud will be turning over in his grave, the hard nosed Ian Chappell will once again, as he did a week or so ago be calling for the heads of both coach and captain. I also don't believe that it's the first time the Australians have cheated, perhaps this is the first time they've been caught cheating.

Today Australians are waking up to this very sad saga and the country is in uproar. I have included a link so as to indicate the mood in the country.

Smith will lose the captaincy and David Warner will never captain the national team. The team itself will be in disarray and will take a very long time to recover.

Cricket, the great game that it is will survive as it did after the Hansie Cronje disgrace.

What annoys me most about these bastards is the amount of money available to them and the amount of money they make with less than half the skills and respect for the game than of those who have gone before, most of whom would have retired on a pension.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/cricket/dark-day-for-australian-cricket-as-steve-smith-admits-plan-to-cheat/ar-BBKDW4b?ocid=spartanntp

Yes it is indeed a very sad day when we go back in the history of this noble game...a very long one

starting with "The Articles of Agreement" handwritten in 1737 by Broderick and Richmond and preserved in West Sussex Record Office with codes documented in 1744 and changed in 1774,1774,1788,1835,1884,1947,1979,2000 and now recently in October 2017.

In 1788 the MCC was founded and documented "The Laws of the Noble Game of Cricket"

and what has happened recently makes mockery of this once wonderful game.

Over the years when the game was non professional it was always a clean game but as the money factor started creeping in the odd incidents started creeping in and man's inability to control greed seeped in.

I can understand fully the disgust of cricket lovers as I too loved this game with passion. At school I preferred this game to even rugby but over the years from the late 1990's and early 2000's my interest started to wane.

What has happened here recently in the Australian series is totally unacceptable and I certainly hope that really tough punishment of the perpetrators is measured out without mercy as to make the penalties so terrible that it will never happen again and sully the game .

Even then it's unfortunate that such extreme measures should be taken.

I'm not convinced that we need to know the names of the leadership group and that they should be placed under investigation, the responsibility and decision falls at the feet of the captain and therefor he alone has to pay the penalty. My only interest now is whether the coach was involved, I'm curious as to how he sent the 12th man out onto the field to tell Bancroft that he'd been busted......sounds like even though he might not have been part of the decision making he had an inkling of what was going down.

Then again it's of minor importance what I think, the powers that be in the cricket world have made their decisions and on that basis I'm satisfied. Thankfully we don't need lawyers to once again decide the fate of cricket issues.

In a way I feel for Smith, I'm sure he wishes he could turn back the clock, we all make mistakes the difference being that his is in the public arena. It's only a few weeks ago when he was hailed as Australia's best batsmen since Bradman.....high praise indeed....some were comparing him to Bradman. Time has a way of healing pain but I doubt whether he'll decide to continue playing for his country.....I hope I'm wrong but I doubt we'll see him in the baggy green again.

It's time to move on.

Denny

I doubt it very much whether the issue of Smith and the senior players will end where it is at present.   I think other players will come out of this with blackened names as well.

I am afraid there are other factors which may represent the end of Smith's international career.   What will happen when he play against other countries - will those not use the whole story continuously in future to impact on his future?

As it is not only the SA newspapers who is in a press war against Smith and in also Warner - the newspaper storm mostly involve Australian newspapers.   That is the real problem insofar as their careers are concerned.

And the IPL is also looking at Smith's participation in that series and it may end up that Warner is in trouble in that series as well.   That could have serious financial losses involving millions for them.   Must say I foresaw this coming in the case of those two players. 

Incidentally - I saw brief media reports in the local newspapers about a protest march on Sunday in Brisbane about making it easier for SA farmers and even other White South Africans to emigrate to Australia?   What happened in that case?