The ball tampering allegations have shaken the cricketing
world again. Test cricket had been skating on thin ice recently, with poor
stadium attendance and viewership. It did not need this issue at this moment.
But is there more to it than what meets the eye?
Roll back a few years, to when Smith was not a regular in
the Australian side. He was a part-time leg spinner, let alone a captaincy
material. He was unlike his predecessors, Steve Waugh, Ponting or even Michael
Clarke, who all had been earmarked and groomed for the captaincy role. Smith,
pretty much jumped out of nowhere, into the captaincy contention, after scoring
bountiful of runs.
So what does it have to do with current allegation? Well, very
much. Not only did he have to score runs, but also captain a pathetic Australian
team, which most of time, has only Warner and him, to make some match of any test
cricket game. Adding to it, is the Cricket Australia’s expectations of their
cricket team to nearly win every match to get more or better sponsorship. The
immense pressure of doing all the things has taken a toll on his beleaguered body
and mind.
Smithy boy has done the right thing in putting up his hand.
But in this cruel world, straight trees are cut first. He will be banned for a
year and perhaps shunned from any captaincy role in future. It will be tough,
but not impossible, for him to make a comeback into this cut-throat world of
international cricket.
Perhaps he should have gone the Indian way of doing things,
blame it on someone else (Bancroft) and gone ahead to create Don Bradman-ish type
of records. Alas, his ‘leadership group’ words will haunt him for the rest of
his life!!
