Jason Gillespie on the ball tampering scandal: Steven Smith’s time as Australia’s captain is surely up

Veteran ex-pacer of Australia, Jason Gillespie thinks that it would be a profanity to let Steve Smith continue as the permanent captain of Australia after what he did in the third test against South Africa. Smith’s central role in the ball tampering fiasco should apparently put the final nail on his leadership of a team which is already “drawing scorn” for their behavior.

In the third day of the Cape Town test, young Aussie cricketer Cameron Bancroft was caught on the television cameras tampering with the ball. Controversy broke out across the cricketing community later on as captain Steve Smith admitted to having been aware of the attempt.

As a temporary measure from ICC, Smith was banned for one match, but not before he and vice-captain David Warner had already stepped down from their positions. Australia named Tim Paine as an interim captain, but it was far from being enough to save the day. The mental condition of the team and the atmosphere of the dressing room was evident in their thundering loss to the hosts by 322 runs.

But in regard to Smith’s insistence that he had not planned to quit captaincy altogether, Gillespie said that it would be an unbelievable scenario if that happens. In a column he wrote for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, he said, “It is impossible to envisage a scenario where he stays in the job. This is a train wreck. Steven Smith’s time as Australia’s captain is surely up.”

He also mentioned how the team has built up a reputation for being “arrogant” and that this scandal has only added fire to that. “This was pre-planned cheating…The reputation of a team who were already drawing scorn for their behavior has been torched. The brutal reality is that this team are seen as arrogant and all too quick to dictate ‘the line’ to others,” he wrote.

These events have exposed the hypocrisy

Gillespie, who had been a part of the formidable Australian team of the 1990’s and the early 2000’s, also brought out the hypocrisy of the current Australian team in his piece. “It was not so long ago that Warner was ripping into (South Africa captain) Faf du Plessis for ball-tampering in 2016, saying Australia would never do the same. The events over the weekend have exposed this as rank hypocrisy,” he said.

He even sounds worried about the overall reputation of the Australian team and its legacy. “Is the Baggy Green tarnished as a result of this?” – he asks.

However, he did defend his former Australian team-mate and current Australian coach Darren Lehmann. Steve Smith has said in his statement that Lehmann knew nothing of this little scheme, and Gillespie seems to be agreeing with it. In his opinion, Lehmann’s reactions were clearly that of a coach who was protective of his boys.

“I would be amazed if this was not the case and that the moves he made when it all unraveled on the field were not done on instinct to protect his players,” he opines about Lehmann’s knowledge regarding the tampering attempt.

He ends the article on a positive note saying that even though the Australian cricket team would now have to build back the trust of the public from scratch, new leaders will take up the responsibility to do it. “But it will not be Smith and it will not be Warner,” he concludes.