The week that went by has seen the world turning upside down for two of the modern-day greats. The ‘leadership group’, of which they were a part of in the Aussie camp took a questionable (read: silly) decision, that of tampering with the ball. If given a chance, Steven Smith and David Warner would definitely want to go back in time and undo their wrongdoings.

It was during the lunch break on Day 3 in the Cape Town Test, third of the series when the ‘leadership group’ colluded to roughen up one side of the ball with a foreign substance (which apparently is not allowed on the cricket field). Bancroft was roped in to execute the plan and he made a complete mess out of it. On the field, one is always under scrutiny and it is difficult (almost impossible) to escape from the cameraman’s lens’. Soon enough, there emerged visuals of Bancroft using a yellow piece of paper to scrape the surface of the ball with. The broadcasters played it on the giant screen and the cat was out of the bag.

At the press conference, later in the day, Smith and Bancroft finally spilled the beans on what they had planned on doing. And the news spread like wildfire. The cricketing world was hit with a controversy of this magnitude for the first time since the match-fixing saga which happened at the turn of the century. It’s not that ball tampering was unheard of previously and many players had been convicted of the same. However, this was different.

The Australians have always played their game hard which more often than naught has border lined on a rather bullish brand of cricket. So, when an Australian captain makes plans of cheating with the second-in-charge and asks a young lad, who is just a few tests old, to tamper with the ball, it definitely would cause a huge uproar. Not only did international media took it upon themselves to convict and sentence these players, it saw it as an opportunity to grill the Aussies so as to avenge their boorish conduct in the past.

These are fine players, very fine indeed. But as Mike Hussey aptly puts it in his article, ’character first, skill second.’ Of course, it is a sport and everyone plays to win. But at what cost? You must draw a line for yourself and try to not go beyond it. Desperate times call for desperate measures. A paradigm shift in their approach to the game and the culture within the dressing room is the need of the hour. It is okay sometimes to lose to a better opposition. There is no guarantee that you will win every game. But it is totally not acceptable to use unfair means and bypass the law to gain the upper hand.

Having said that, I believe it was a huge error in judgment and it was definitely not well thought of.  The consequences outweigh what would have been gained. To see them break down while addressing the press was very sad. They have been good servants of the game and are role models to young kids growing up. It was evident from their interaction with the media that they are deeply rooted family men. Smith broke down talking about how it affects him seeing his mom and dad go through this and Warner too, was teary-eyed when he spoke about letting his wife and daughters down.

What’s done is done. It is something they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. I am afraid that even after all that they have achieved on the cricket field and will achieve after serving the suspension ban, they will still have this blot on their respective careers and wouldn’t find their names taken alongside the all-time greats to have played the game.

It is not just about the numbers and statistics, it is the spirit with which you played your game that accounts for far more than the hundreds you have scored. I hope every young and budding cricketer finds a lesson in this and plays this great game of cricket in the right spirit. As for Smith, Warner, and Bancroft, I hope they find the strength to go through this and I am sure they will come back all the wiser, with an answer to the question posed in the title.