Pat Cummins can end sandpaper saga with full disclosure of what players knew – not what they didn’t | Geoff Lemon

Australia captain can confront ball tampering scandal with transparency about former team environment and how its members made their choices In March 2018, Steve Smith was handed a shit sandwich by Cricket Australia. Smith had helped in its preparation, as captain of an Australia

Australia captain can confront ball tampering scandal with transparency about former team environment and how its members made their choices In March 2018, Steve Smith was handed a shit sandwich by Cricket Australia. Smith had helped in its preparation, as captain of an Australia team whose ball tampering experiments on their tour of South Africa had got out of control, but it was always questionable that CA limited the blame to Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. Usman Khawaja’s recent revelations have added context that Smith adamantly took the fall to spare others.

It is not in truth good leadership to perpetuate a lie, but Smith would reasonably have believed that his first job was to protect his men. Sometimes, you just have to tuck in. Eight-and-a-half years later, current Test captain Pat Cummins has been handed a shit sandwich of his own.

This one is in the form of Khawaja’s book, detailing the 2018 team’s widespread acceptance of ball tampering . Khawaja got to enjoy his full playing career before this reveal , which has denied the same luxury to active players Cummins, Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. That doesn’t make Khawaja’s actions wrong.

It’s a miracle the stitched-up version of events lasted this long . From day one, nobody involved had the courage to simply speak the whole truth. That’s the sole reason this saga continues .

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