Yep. The Aussies are cheats
But the outrage is disproportionately high
The punishment for ball tampering is 1 match suspension, which in footy terms is equivalent to an errant hip 'n shoulder.
Remember when the GOAT bowler and the Skipper's twin brother were paid by a bookie for info?
Or when GOAT again took a banned substance?
Far worse
Smith et al has joined the likes of Tendulkar, Atherton, Afridi
But he's no Hanse
Agree. People just continually talk about cricket being a gentleman’s game and ignore the copious amount of underhand stuff that goes on. Don’t get me wrong, I think this was a stupid and inexcusable error, and expect there to be multiple changes to the team, but reverse swing occurring before overs 40-50 basically relies on a degree of ball tampering that happens as a matter of routine. We were just terrible in our attempt to cheat.
People seem quick to write off other ball tampering incidents as spur of the moment, despite them being nearly all premeditated to some degree.
The current South African team has had 3 recent charges against them (2 from their current captain, one involving using his zipper. I mean, since when do cricketing whites have zippers?!).
Then guys like Vaughan come out in the media crucifying the Australian team, despite it being on record that he captained a team which used a player as a designated tamperer (who tested different mints and found the best for the job - illegal under the exact same law as this incident) who openly admits to it in his book.
Maybe we should have gone the Afridi route and just ate the ball?