Our Beating Heart

In an era where sporting misjudgments are commonplace, why has the ball-tampering incident cut so deeply?

The genes that constitute our DNA are the building blocks that define who and what we are. We also know that environmental factors surrounding us can influence our genetic makeup, and over shorter time-frames than we once thought.

The train-wreck of the past week has been horrifying to watch. Whether you love the sport or not, cricket is our sporting heart and part of Australia’s genetic makeup. The reaction of the entire country to the ball-tampering incident proves this beyond doubt. I confess upfront my love for cricket and the positive influence that it has been in my life, and on so many levels. Friendships forged around a cricket ball are among sport’s most durable.

In an earlier article I suggested that we needed more local identity, and called for greater investment in our social infrastructure, sport being one of those bridges that brings us together and removes barriers. Our national outrage this week has proven to me that our identity is inexorably linked to sport. Whereas others define themselves by their town or region, Australians define themselves nationally as a whole, with our sporting preferences and ideals at the core. Sport constitutes our tribes, certainly not race, religion or the town in which we live.

The country woke up on Sunday morning 26 March, with the terrible realisation that perhaps our identity had somehow been contaminated. We looked in the mirror after a big night of partying and didn’t like what we saw. Perhaps the influence of fame, fortune and winning-means-everything, were messing with our DNA and corrupting our values. I think many already had a queasy feeling that professional sport was leading us down a darker path of late. Cricket, above all others, holds a very special place in our hearts, and thus more easily broken.

However, please tell me that you were also moved by the gut-wrenching interview that Steve Smith held as he flew back to Australia. Handling himself like he did, fronting his nation and taking responsibility for his leadership failure took real guts – not something that we are used to seeing in our leaders anymore. 

Frankly, at 28, I feel he is perhaps entitled to make a few ‘leadership errors’. Any of us in leadership positions have made one or three, but as a 28 year old male, mine were almost daily occurrences. Let’s face it, our brains don’t start forming until we hit 30. 

I hope that our sense of fair-play extends to giving someone a second chance. The quid-pro-quo of this is that the recipient of such good grace needs to demonstrate that they, and the environmental influences that surround them, are worthy.  I predict that Steve Smith will indeed make good his promise to work tirelessly to redress his misjudgments, prove himself worthy and in the process earn back our respect and mend our broken hearts. It happened, and it will forever be a part of Australia’s sporting narrative. Let's move on.

No doubt the defibrillator is already being charged, It is cricket after all, and our nation is not complete without a strong cricketing heartbeat. However, increasingly, professional sport proposes a difficult balancing act; and as the Norwegians demonstrated in the Winter Olympics, culture matters.