Michael Vaughan calls Cricket Australia 'self-righteous' and 'abusive'

The Australian cricket team plays the game with a lot of pride. They play hard and are known to go beyond the line to win. While that is acceptable to an extent as far as sledging and player banters are considered what unfolded in the South Africa vs Australia 3rd Test has shaken up their cricket. Skipper Steve Smith, his deputy David Warner and Cameron Bancroft admitted to planning and tampering the ball which has landed them hefty bans.

However, not everyone is on the same page as far as Cricket Australia’s (CA) verdict in the matter is concerned. Speaking about the ball-tampering saga on the ABC documentary Caught Out, Michael Vaughan called out the attitude of the Australian cricket side in the last few years to be arrogant and lacking in sportsman’s spirit.

Points out all that was wrong

“This Australian side now for two or three years, they haven’t behaved in a fashion that you would want to be around,” Vaughan said. “They have been abusive at times, you know they’ve got away with it. They’re very self-righteous and have been for a while,” he added.

The entire cricketing community would probably agree with the former English captain, especially after the team kept bumping into one controversy after the other in the series against South Africa. The final nail on the coffin was the ball tampering incident and the consequential ban imposed on captain Smith and vice-captain Warner.

Team Australia showed no signs of recovering from the damage, as they surrendered to a massive defeat in the final Test in Johannesburg by 492 runs. This is the third consecutive loss they suffered after winning the first test in Durban, leading to a 3-1 win for the hosts.

While addressing the media about his role in the incident, Smith held himself and his failure of leadership responsible for the entire setback suffered by Cricket Australia in this incident. He also said that this was the first time anyone tried to illegally alter the state of the ball under his captaincy.

But Michael Vaughan does not think so. The fact that a new player like Bancroft was asked to carry out the tampering makes him believe that it was a tried and tested practice.

“I can’t think that Cam Bancroft was told to go out there with a piece of tape for a reason that they’ve not tried it before,” Vaughan said.

In his confident opinion, they have been doing this for a while, especially in the Ashes series earlier last year. Though it did not make much of a difference, because he thinks England would have lost anyway.

“I’m pretty sure it was going on throughout the Ashes series, but it wasn’t the reason England lost 4-0. England still would have lost that series,” he remarked. “Australia probably needed their little trick of the trade, maybe in Melbourne, it didn’t work, other than that I don’t think they required it, but I’m pretty sure it’s been going on for quite a while.”

The world now waits to see whether the three accused cricketers – Smith, Warner and Bancroft will challenge CA’s decision about the one year ban or not.

Here is everything you need to know about the ball-tampering saga:

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