Par for the course?

Let’s be honest – cheating in order to gain victory has always been part of life, not just sport – whether it’s insider dealing, doping to either improve or hinder performance, ‘getting away with stuff’ when the match officials aren’t watching or can be hoodwinked, or even sometimes not competing a marathon course as you should (e.g. by taking a taxi … cutting corners … even getting imposters to run for you).

None of us are really naive enough to believe anything you could possibly imagine being done to gain an illegal advantage over your opponents has not been tried at one time or another by someone in real life.

Cricket, of course, has had its fair share of scandals down the ages – let’s summon the likes of Hansie Cronje (match fixing) or Mohammad Asif, Ajay Sjharma and Mohammed Azharuddin – to name but four of innumerable numbers also associated with bookmakers – and various ‘chuckers’ and/or ball-tampering incidents here as evidence – and so, in a way, yesterday’s events needn’t surprise anyone.

However, the Cameron Bancroft ball-tampering incident (which I caught only by accidentally tuning into a highlights package on Sky Sports) in yesterday’s Australia/South Africa Test Match and its ramifications – especially when the activity in question was deliberately set up by the Australian captain – does surely set a new standard of unfortunate descent – see here for Adam Collins’ piece that appears upon the website today of – THE GUARDIAN