If you follow cricket, you would have heard about the ball-tampering scandal that marred the test series between South Africa and Australia.
For those of you who don’t watch cricket and haven’t heard anything about it, let me just quickly summarise the whole thing for you.
On March 24, Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera altering the condition of the ball by running sandpaper over it.
When initially questioned by the umpires on the field, they denied any wrongdoing.
It was only after the game at the press conference that Bancroft, captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner admitted that they deliberately tried to alter the condition of the ball and that it was planned.
The trio was initially fined between 90-100 per cent of their match fee, but due to the outcry about the leniency of their punishments, Cricket Australia have banned Smith and Warner for 12 months, while Bancroft was banned for nine months.
The trio all went home in disgrace and this is where the melodramatic antics started.
Each player has held a press conference where they have tearfully admitted they were wrong and asked for forgiveness.
Oh please, is what I say.
They are not crying because they are sorry, they are crying because they got caught cheating and have lost out on lucrative deals.
This is not the first time something like this has happened.
Video footage has emerged of Bancroft putting sugar in his pocket during the Ashes Series against England in January.
So really, all the tears are because the whole world now knows they are cheats.
They deliberately planned to cheat, brought sandpaper onto the field and had they won, they would have claimed it was because they were the better team.
It’s hard to feel sorry for the players, especially Smith and Warner, who have played a big role in the bullying culture that has formed in the Australian cricket team.
They have the biggest mouths and now want us to feel sorry for them.
Well, I don’t.
The only person I feel a bit of sympathy for is former coach Darren Lehmann, who was cleared of any wrongdoing by Cricket Australia but decided to step down as Australia’s coach after the final test against South Africa.
Warner has since joined Smith and Bancroft in accepting sanctions imposed on him by the cricket board for his role inthe ball-tampering scandal.
I can already tell you what will happen in a few months, there will be pictures of them doing charity work and playing community cricket and talking about how they have learned their lesson and would be eternally grateful if they were selected for Australia again.
But will they really have learned anything from this?
I have my doubts.
I think a lifetime ban from cricket would have been the appropriate punishment.
They knew what they were doing all along and are only sorry because they got caught.
To the children watching at home and the public who support, it was a huge violation of their trust and it has further tarnished the game of cricket.
Cheating, in any form, should be unacceptable and the consequences should be severe.
