Ball Tampering In The Light of Universal Laws

I thought I’d weigh in with some thoughts about the cricket ball tampering issue. Given my value on ‘The Whole News’, I’ve been pleased to see that the latest conversation about this issue has questioned the punishments imposed on the ‘guilty trio’.

I don’t follow cricket at all, and I’m no sports pro but I do have an appreciation of universal/natural laws and I don’t believe that any event is one-sided – either good or bad. It seems to me that there’s quite a bit of scapegoating happening here because we humans, we Australians, are loath to be completely honest or completely responsible.

One compelling (and uncomfortable) universal law is that the world is our mirror, so whatever we see ‘out there’ is also ‘in here’. If we label those men as cheats, we must be willing to own our own cheating nature. Everyone cheats at some time – whether it’s over our tax or something as apparently innocuous as a board game. Can all the people pointing fingers at Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner own their own cheating trait?

Any time we hear blanket statements and generalisations that something is either wonderful or horrendous, another aspect of that same thing is probably being ignored. There is not one nation in the world that is completely admirable – each one has its shameful history, its poor human rights record, its cruelties and stupidity. That includes us in Australia. We have many admirable traits and many shameful traits. Clinging to the myth that we are all fair and good sports and mates and a classless society is simply not the whole story, and this exposé is humbling in a useful way.  

I’d like to acknowledge Smith’s, Bancroft’s and Warner’s courage in owning their misdeed. If they were being cocky prior to that experience they have been well and truly humbled. This is the benefit in the pain: they are learning an important lesson, and while it hurts, it will help them grow and mature far more than if they’d just carried on being ‘the golden boys’. Their characters will deepen. They will be more understanding of and compassionate toward others. I hope that David Warner, who is still bearing the brunt of Australia’s righteousness, can hold himself together through this painful period, learn his lesson and keep his head up in the knowledge that not one person who is criticising him is flawless.

Poor decisions, carelessness, shoddy work, mistakes made by rushing – all of these things can hurt us but they are how we learn, evolve and grow, and that’s their value to us.