Yeah, that's sort of what I was getting at. I understand why the team gets more flak, but I don't think it's right to extend that criticism to the ideal.
The reason I asked that question about other nations is because actually eradicating this kind of stuff requires leadership. A huge ban from CA sets a precedent. If the same occurs when an Indian cricketer does the same thing it reinforces the message and doesn't give the next Australian cricketer who contemplates it a rationalisation (well its fine for them!) to do something that would be to his benefit.
I do admire that CA and the fans are actually trying to preserve this idea of 'Australian Sportsmanship' by handing out severe punishments when presented with strong evidence of actions against it.
But personally. I think it's a dumb ideal to begin with. This is Elite Sport. The players are going to push the rules. It's natural. To have this standard that the players are supposed to uphold whilst they are also supposed to, simultaneously, be doing everything they can to win creates all this grey area of what is acceptable conduct and what isn't. It's trying to balance two conflicting ideals. You cannot be doing everything you can to win unless you are also bending the rules. You want your elite sportsmen to not walk, to sneakily tamper the ball, to take every little advantage they can get. You want to see that hunger in them to win. You cannot be a Steve Waugh and also be a goody goody two shoes. It just doesn't work.
In trying to balance these two conflicting ideals, they end up making hypocrites of themselves. And that's what I don't like. I don't mind nasty. I mind hypocrisy.
To me, the ideal way to deal with this situation would be abandoning the myth of "Australian Sportsmanship" altogether. Shatter whatever image and perceptions you have created, and just own the identity of being a nasty cricket team who will take whatever advantage they can get and is willing to play dirty to win. Like, realistically I don't know how they can do this - with all the brand image that has been created, and the code of conduct, and the sponsors, and all that stuff. Realistically they have backed themselves into a corner where they have to do what they are doing now, and double down on this Myth and now work to make it a reality.
This isn't the problem of other cricket nations. No other nation has attempted to cultivate this myth. Maybe England, but that's it. The subcontinent is fine playing nasty cricket, and if anything we seem to increasingly be encouraging it. SA have always been gracious off the field and ruthless on it. Kiwis are just naturally nice, they aren't falsifying it. The West Indians mankaded their way to a U-19 WC win not so long ago, invented their own dances to celebrate wickets, and since the 70s have been an aggressive and intimidating bunch. None of them have tried to foster this double-identity. None of them have this mantra of 'Hard but Fair'. It's just Australia. And so I don't think we should look to other countries to follow Australia's lead on how to deal with cheats.
Australia backed themselves into this corner, they can get themselves out of it.
