I have watched with astonishment the Australian drama that has unfolded at Newlands Cricket ground, Cape Town, over the last 24 hours. It really was a massive error of judgment on the part of Australian captain Steve Smith and his leadership team. What were they thinking? This clearly wasn’t thought through with much intelligence. One thing they never anticipated was the phenomenal worldwide backlash after they were caught.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I will, very briefly put you in the picture. Tampering with the ball in cricket is not allowed. Steve Smith and who he described as his “leadership team” decided to get one of the young cricketers (Cameron Bancroft ) to rub a piece of sticky yellow tape on the ball to try damage the ball so they could get the umpire to change it. This was decided at the lunch break yesterday. There was one fundamental flaw to their plan: there are dozens of cameras filming the match and every move of the players is being monitored, so the whole thing was caught on camera. You can watch what happened here…
For South African cricket fans, Australia have long been the one cricket team that we have loved to beat. My experience in watching South Africa playing Australia goes back to the days when South Africa re-entered the world of international sport. Those were the days when “Vinnige Fanie” took the ball, along with Alan Donald. Dave Richardson was behind the stumps and Jonty Rhodes made himself famous with his fielding brilliance. Kepler Wessels was captain and we had some fantastic wins. Then came Hansie and his leadership brought with it more victory and fantastic entertainment. We went through the wonderful season of Sean Pollock. Then Graeme Smith and now there is Faf du Plessis.
I am a cricket fan.
My problem is I tend to be a fair-weather fan. Winning is important. When we start to get thrashed, I quickly abandon my fan-dom and try to focus on other things than the woes of the losing spree of the SA Proteas (like when we lost to India last year!). But one thing I will say, is I’d rather our Proteas lose fair and square than win due to a little cheating.
What Steve Smith was thinking, I do not know, but if winning is important to me, you can imagine how important it is to him.
It just can’t be winning at any cost.
What a sad lesson to learn today. The backlash has been furious, vehement, astounding and vicious.
The entire team is on a massive sporting pedestal. They have to be above reproach.
And so must I, as a person who follows Christ.
I must be above reproach in my own heart – to my own self – a heart displayed in front of God.
Philippians 2:15
…so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation…
Then I won’t give way to sin that can so easily entangle me. It’s not just a lesson for Steve Smith. It’s a lesson to me.
We’ve had a quiet day. My stomach has been very unsettled, so I’ve taken it easy. One thing I am enjoying:
#609 of my 1000 thanks is for the change of seasons. Autumn has arrived….
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂