Most damning for Smith is his lame attempt to brush it all off because the umpires didn’t have to replace the ball. He wasn’t sorry for disgracing his country or demeaning the iconic status of it’s cricket captains in the national psyche from Bradman to Benaud to Waugh or bringing the credibility of the game into disrepute, he was sorry his patsy, Bancroft got caught cocking up the devious plot he cooked up with his senior players and his fast bowlers all hoping to benefit from the ball tampering. (No point instructing your junior players to cheat if you don’t let your bowlers in on it so they can change their hand position to get the ball reverse swinging, the whole team must have been in on it.)
Smith doesn’t get it, he will cling on defiantly because he has convinced himself cheating only counts if it works. He’s beyond contempt.
Smith must never captain a cricket team again. If he does, how can Australians ever call out the Russians for doping or the Pakistanis for bribery?
