Lehmann lacks a legacy
BANS ON SMITH, WARNER IMMINENT AS COACH CERTAIN TO BE AXED
Australia’s soon-to-be ex-coach will not be missed by many as his thuggish behaviour was masked by his coaching success |
Cricket Australia supremo James Sutherland arrived in South Africa yesterday to precipitate an expected dramatic shake-up of the Test team in the wake of the weekend’s ball-tampering scandal and announce punishment for the protagonists.
Australia was plunged into turmoil after captain Steve Smith admitted on Saturday that senior players had conspired with opening batsman Cameron Bancroft to tamper with the ball during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.
Sutherland, who already asked Smith and David Warner to step down as captain and vicecaptain respectively, is expected to come down hard on the team’s senior figures after being given a report into the scandal.
The chief executive will hear the outcome of a probe into Saturday’s incident from team performance head Pat Howard and integrity chief Iain Roy after the pair spent on Monday in Cape Town interviewing the players.
Cricket Australia (CA) will announce the punishments at a news conference in Johannesburg, where the team will prepare for the fourth Test.
CA is expected to announce additional sanction for captain Smith, who has already been suspended for the fourth Test by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and is expected to head home to Australia in the next few days.
There could also be bans for Warner and other members of the ‘leadership group’, who Smith admitted had hatched the plan to rough up the ball to obtain extra swing on the third day of the third Test.
That would leave some spots in the team open and Queensland opener Matthew Renshaw will fly to Johannesburg to join the beleaguered Test squad.
The position of coach Darren Lehmann also hangs in the balance despite Smith’s denial of any involvement by the coach in the plotting.
The former Test batsman clearly played a part in trying to cover up the cheating by getting word to Bancroft that his use of tape to try and scuff up the ball had been spotted by the television cameras.
Smith’s predecessor as captain, Michael Clarke, thought Lehmann was damned even if he had not known about the plan to cheat. “If that’s the case, then the Australian head coach hasn’t got control of this Australian team,” Clarke said on Channel Nine TV. “And if he does know about it, then he’s as accountable as anybody else.”
Even if Lehmann is cleared of any involvement in the affair, there is clearly a mood in Australia that the standards of behaviour of the national team have dropped too far in the five years of his reign.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said yesterday he had spoken to Cricket Australia chairman David Peever and demanded swift action on the ball-tampering incident, which he described as a “shocking affront to Australia” and a “terrible disgrace”.