#38 – All Paine, no gain

They talk about the Spirit of the Game.

The Laws of Cricket actually begin by talking about its Spirit; and “any action which is seen to abuse this Spirit causes injury to the game itself.”

The Spirit is why we respect the umpires, congratulate the opposition and conduct ourselves with dignity.

It’s why we need a bit of cricket in our lives. Lawyers should be combative without being unsportsmanlike. There’s nothing worse than a lawyer who bases their arguments on technicalities instead of fairness, or who tries to get under your skin and play the man instead of playing the ball.

It’s enshrined into cricket and that’s one of the things I love about it.

It’s also why it hurt so much to see two successive Australian men’s’ captains fall well short. In the Rules of Cricket, the captains are tasked with upholding and safeguarding the Spirit of the Game within their teams.

When an innocuous speck of sandpaper was used to tamper with a cricket ball in South Africa under captain Steve Smith’s watch, plenty of heads rolled. Smith, along with the vice-captain and the coach all lost or resigned from their posts.

Everyone from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull down to yours truly was disgusted. Cricket Australia underwent a cultural review (whatever that means).

Cricket Australia had to smooth things over (pun intended) with the fans, the sponsors and the wider cricket community. Enter Tim Paine. The man who was going to save Australia’s reputation and bring us back into the Spirit of the Game.

Paine introduced pre-match handshakes, there was an Amazon Prime documentary where the team agreed to do better and most importantly, Australia was winning again!

Then my phone buzzed and in an instant Paine was disgraced. It hurt to hear that this man, presented to us as the moral Messiah, had done some things he shouldn’t have prior to becoming captain.

Cricket Australia – despite their cultural review – apparently knew about this when they appointed him captain, which makes the decision even stranger. The behaviour isn’t bad enough to stop him from being appointed Captain, until it became public knowledge?

It’s more than that. It’s how the integrity of the leader is tied to the message. Paine’s ‘extra-curricular activities’ don’t affect whether he enforces the follow-on or puts Marnus on to bowl some atrocious leggies just before the lunch break.

His integrity – and now Cricket Australia’s legacy as a whole – is tied up in the integrity of the message or the cause they advance. We have leaders who claim to advance the Spirit of the Game but don’t uphold the principles themselves.

That doesn’t sit right with us. If the head of PETA was at a steakhouse ordering every steak on the menu and taking one bite of each before throwing the rest away, you’d be pretty quick to dismiss him next time he tells you not to wear fur because it’s cruel to animals.

The leader can’t go against the message they carry. They have to embody the message – live it, actualise it, perpetuate it. We expect our leaders to be a positive example of the principles which they espouse.

So who does that leave in the Australian cricket team to become captain? It’s not easy. If Steve Smith wants to be captain again, he has to earn back the trust and reputation broken by the sandpaper scandal. Pat Cummins is also a popular choice.

I’ll put my two cents in here. Give the captaincy to Usman Khawaja and promote Travis Head to vice-captain. Both have experience captaining their respective states (Queensland and South Australia). I really like how they both carry themselves on the field and in the media.

Khawaja is experienced, in great form and should get his spot back in the side. Head is young enough to be the future of the team for years to come.

And please, let’s get it together and win the Ashes this summer!

Next week: Atticus