The history of sport has many incidents of players getting suspended for not treading the path of law. Drugs, fixing, improper conduct. Reasons are varied and the list of violators contains big names like Diego Maradona, Hansie Cronje, Maria Sharapova, Luis Suarez etc. The case of three Australian cricketers—Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft—suspended for ball-tampering will still occupy a special place in the annals of cricket. This was the first time in the history of the game that a national captain and vice-captain were given such exemplary punishments for this kind of offence.
It was the Australian board, Cricket Australia (CA) which handed out this sentence after the International Cricket Council (ICC) banned Smith for a year and let Bancroft off with a warning and a fine. The trio still received the unprecedented sanction because they had betrayed the trust of a nation. It was not just another case of cricketers breaking rules. By asking his men to do what they did, not only did the Australia captain bring the game to disrepute or damage his own reputation, but with his act of imprudence, the biggest ambassador of cricket in his country also left the establishment in jeopardy.
In a country where bat and ball compete with other sports for space in the subconscious mind of the masses, the cricket board has to be innovative to attract and create fans. A lakh packing the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for Australian Rules Football is no big deal, and cricketers also have to fight with top-level swimmers, athletes and tennis players for prominence in the list of the country’s sporting icons. Cricket administrators have to work hard to get sponsors. Stars are precious commodities, for they bring in the money.
Those who invest in cricket in Australia have expressed a desire to review plans. Although the exact extent will be known once the figures are out, the brisk pace at which CA completed its inquiry shows officials were under pressure. A public outcry led by the Prime Minister was a major reason for this promptness. Australians consider sports as a constituent of their culture. Cricket being their oldest organised team game—and also a field where they established supremacy over England early on—is part of their social fabric.
Top cricketers involved in cheating was a sight no Australian could tolerate.“We Aussies love our heroes and instant champions. But it doesn’t take us long to bring them down to the streets when something like this happens,” says former Australia fast bowler Len Pascoe. “It was a stupid and shameful act on part of Smith. That it was a plan involving other members of the team makes it worse. You can see how the world has reacted. These are times when the stars realise that the media is no PR platform. The public doesn’t forgive these things. Because we love our sports, such things hurt us bad.”
Based in Sydney, Pascoe runs an agency that hires celebrities and entertainers for corporate and private events. Difficult to approach for high price and therefore disliked at times, current cricketers risk becoming all the more unpopular after this episode. “No. Not now. As it is, a Smith or a Warner or a Lyon is difficult to arrange. After this, they will be low on demand for a while, for sure.”
Ripples of Cape Town are more far-reaching than being confined to the shores of Australia. Smith and the other man in the eye of the storm, David Warner, are household names in the world of cricket, which makes them hot property for endorsements. Both have a fleet of sponsors, and the value of these deals runs into millions of dollars. Following this act of indiscretion, they stand to lose a fortune in sponsorships, other than fan-following.
“Sponsors wouldn’t like to associate with players found corrupt or who are guilty of something like cheating,” feels Dinesh Chopra of Kaizen Media Solutions, who manages Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra. “Brands want ambassadors to have a clean image, since people who consume these products look up to them. Corporates spend millions to get the PR right, to portray the right picture. The ball-tampering incident will impact the brand value of Smith and others, like it happened in the (recent) case of Ben Stokes.”
Considering the amounts they earn from endorsements, stars are expected to understand the importance of image-maintenance. This is needed to ensure that things don’t get disrupted due to unnecessary controversies. Players these days are known to make extra efforts so that nothing untoward or unsavoury is written or spoken about them. Examples of anything unusual going viral on social media make them cautious and they think twice before making comments or getting photographed. In this respect, it was astonishing that Smith first let his men do what they did and then spoke about it at a press conference.
“A lot of what cricketers do is followed and consumed instantly on social media. The stakes being so high, they have to be careful about what they are doing or who they are talking to. Virat Kohli, for example, refused to endorse a soft drink because he thinks aerated water is not good for sportsmen. Many cricketers don’t endorse products related to tobacco and alcohol. That’s because it’s important for them to convey that they stand for certain values,” says Chopra.
The yellow-tape saga is a publicity disaster in this respect, which is likely to cost Smith and Warner dear even in the long run. They will lose goodwill, and coming back to cricket from the ignominy of being sanctioned will take some effort. It’s early to assume that their career is over, but it’s safe to say that resurrecting whatever is left is going to be tougher than starting from zero. That’s because of this baggage of being labelled as cheats, which they have to live with for the rest of their lives.
Other than Smith losing acceptance in his country and the market of cricket, there is another aspect of the ball-tampering episode. It’s about what prompts a player to do this when he knows that more than embarrassment is in store if it doesn’t come off. Long before the Australian plan misfired spectacularly, players had been caught and punished for trying to distort the ball. All these incidents were seen on television and Smith knew that there were 30 cameras recording the action in Cape Town.
That he still chose to risk individual and collective reputation suggests that the entire team was under pressure. A big series tied 1-1, things not going their way in the third Test, it could have been a foolish-yet-desperate attempt to turn things around. Although this theory doesn’t justify the deed, it might explain why this was done.
“Money makes people do strange things. With high amounts on offer these days and stakes also high in other respects, teams sometimes think they should do anything to win. It’s a pressure they bring on themselves. Obviously it’s stupid and not acceptable, but for them it becomes a question of winning by hook or crook,” notes former India captain Ajit Wadekar. “And when that happens, the spirit of the game goes out of the window.” Pascoe agrees, saying that the pressure of performing at any cost brings the worst out of them.
The other effect incidents like this can have is a question mark over a lot of things. Struggling already to weed out fixing from the mushrooming T20 leagues around the world, cricket will now start drawing suspicion whenever someone gets the ball to reverse swing.
It’s not that every team or bowler depends on unfair means to do this, but given the amount of scrutiny reverse swing has come under post the Cape Town saga, unnatural movement of the ball is bound to be viewed with scepticism.
“It’s possible that things which seemed normal until now will start appearing fishy. That’s because this example has been set,” feels Wadekar. “Like the doosra, people might start looking at reverse swing with disrespect. It will be under increased scrutiny and the public might think that something is going on behind everything that is happening on the field. With due respect to the legacy of cricket, this is what the game has to live with.”
Leg-spinner to begin with, who became the world’s top batsman and even forced comparisons at home with the incomparable Don Bradman, Smith will be held responsible for these changes in perception. He should be back playing cricket once the dust settles, but the stigma will not fade fast. Not without reason has the Cape Town controversy been termed one of the great tragedies of modern cricket.