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Ball tampering row: The 'gentleman's game' officially died a few days ago

What the Australian ball-tampering scandal means for one of the world's best-loved sports

Cameron Bancroft and Australian captain Steven Smith with the umpires soon after Bancroft  was captured on camera tampering with the ball
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Cameron Bancroft and Australian captain Steven Smith with the umpires soon after Bancroft was captured on camera tampering with the ball

Dhruv Munjal
There is something strangely soothing about what is currently transpiring in Australian cricket. For years now, the Australian team has consistently found ways to pull off abominable on-field feats that serve only to corroborate its image as a pack of devious tricksters, a bunch of players that places itself on a sanctimonious pedestal only for its misdeeds to bring it tumbling down. We are at a classic schadenfreude moment, when the prevailing sense of sadistic pleasure seems more or less reasonable.

But while the startling disintegration of a world-class squad and its two supremely talented commanders may delight rival teams