Darren Lehmann in the gun as cricket's tampering crisis deepens

Darren Lehmann and Steve Smith have been accused of twisting the Australian cricket team's culture into an "out of control" rabble.

Cricket commentators on Monday said it is impossible for Lehmann to avoid being sacked over the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australia on the third day of the Third Test in Cape Town.

It follows reports Smith will not be returning home to Australia on Monday (AEDT) after being suspended for one match by the ICC for admitting to being at the centre of a calamitous plot to tamper with the ball during South Africa's second innings.

Smith declared the decision was the collective decision from a previously unidentified "leadership group" of senior figures in the team.

The Australian has identified the group is made up of stood down captain Smith, stood down vice-captain David Warner and opening bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.

However, the newspaper claims Starc and Hazlewood were not involved in the decision and suggests Smith made a mistake in claiming the entire leadership group was active in the premeditated decision to tamper with the Kookaburra in a bid to give the Australian quicks a better chance of getting the old ball to reverse swing.

The open discussion of an attempt to deliberately act outside the laws and spirit of cricket in the dressing room and the willingness of Cameron Bancroft to execute the act of cheating has left a dark stain on Australian cricket's reputation on the global stage.

The cause for the apparent disseverment of a once-proud tradition of playing within the spirit of a sport that was once known as the gentleman's game has been left at the feet of Lehmann and Smith.

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BALL TAMPERING WILL COST LEHMANN HIS JOB

The ball-tampering scandal will cost Lehmann his job, according to cricketing commentator Jim Maxwell, who joined former Test star Simon Katich in declaring the coach's position untenable.

"This has been festering for a while in Australia's attitude," Maxwell told ABC Breakfast.

"All this nonsense about not stepping over the line, the way they behaved as badly as South Africa in that rancorous test match in Durban where they kept cursing the opposition and carrying on in an aggressive way reflected the lack of judgment.

"Unfortunately the arrogance that sprung from that has led to this appalling decision — premeditated — to try and do something to the condition of the ball.

"We know there has been ball tampering but none of it has been to this level of deceit in terms of the umpires and the opposition and the way it was perpetrated.

"I would think the fall out from this is that Smith will lose the captaincy, Warner the vice captaincy and Lehmann his job as the coach."

Lehmann is yet to make any public comment about the scandal since television cameras first caught Bancroft attempting to scuff up the ball with concealed tape on Saturday night (AEDT).

English Test great Kevin Pietersen and injured South African fast-bowler Dale Steyn have also suggested their belief that Lehmann was involved in some way.

For now, he remains innocent until proven guilty.

Anyone heard from Lehmann? Saker?

That’s Head Coach & Bowling Coach. Pretty instrumental in all of this...

— Kevin Pietersen🦏 (@KP24) March 25, 2018

My two penneth.
Cricket Aus should have suspended Smith, Warner and Bancroft with immediate effect. Forfeited the test match. Then conduct a full enquiry.

— Graemefowler (@GFoxyFowler) March 25, 2018

"They've got no option but to sack Smith, Warner and Lehmann."

Simon Katich has his say on the ball tampering saga with @GerardWhateley. #SAvAUS #SENTestCricket pic.twitter.com/H5l4VgW74P

— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) March 25, 2018

AUSTRALIAN DRESSING ROOM ROTTING FROM THE HEAD

With Steve Smith declaring on Sunday morning the "leadership group" acted separately and without any instruction from Lehmann and the coaching staff, the captain's position has been the focus of a nation of disgruntled and disenchanted cricket fans.

Many cricket commentators believe Smith's declaration that Lehmann had no knowledge of the plot won't be enough to save his mentor's skin.

English Test great David Lloyd wrote in a column for Skysports.com there is something rotten at the centre of the Australian dressing room.

He joined the growing number of cricket commentators to demand Smith be removed from the captaincy.

"Australia seem totally out of control to me with no leadership of management — either captaincy or coach or chief executive — and it hasn't gone down well over there," Lloyd told Skysports.com.

"If you are a terrific cricket team you want to be remembered as that — wonderful players, wonderful people. Australia have got a long way to go."

Former English captain Michael Atherton, who was also fined for ball-tampering with dirt in his pockets during a Test series in 1994, said the willingness of an emerging player like Bancroft to try to win favour with senior players by cheating suggests a broken culture.

"Smith admitted that the leadership group openly discussed ways to change that in the dressing room at lunchtime," Atherton wrote in The Times.

"Clearly, there were no dissenting voices. Hardly a momentary loss of judgment, then, rather one that was planned and discussed in detail with all the opportunity for common sense to prevail within that.

"Second, is that Bancroft is one of the least experienced members of the team. The captain and senior professionals within the group discussed the means, but it was a junior player who was encouraged or took it upon himself and was allowed to attempt (ham-fistedly as it turns out) to carry out the plan, desperate it would seem to ingratiate himself into the ruling clique. That reflects dismally on the captain and senior players and culture within the team, for which Smith and Darren Lehmann are responsible."

LEGENDS DEMAND SMITH BE STRIPPED OF CAPTAINCY

The damning appraisals of the Aussie cricket culture came as Aussie cricket legends Adam Gilchrist and Jason Gillespie both declared Smith must be stripped of the captaincy.

John Wylie, Australian Sports Commission chief, also publicly called for Smith and Bancroft to be immediately sent home from the Tour of South Africa.

"I can't see how Steve Smith can be captain of the Australian team going forward," Gilchrist told Channel 10's The Project on Sunday night. "I think that decision will be taken out of his hands."

Writing for The Guardian, Gillespie said Smith's failure to grasp the consequences of his act of cheating "beggars belief".

"Steve Smith's time as Australia's captain is surely up. It is impossible to envisage a scenario where he stays in the job. This is a train wreck," Gillespie said.

"When Smith fronted the media on Saturday to explain his role in the ball-tampering scandal, one that has taken an already distasteful encounter with South Africa to new depths, he did not appear to grasp the severity of what he was owning up to. That simply beggared belief."

"The brutal reality is that this team are seen as arrogant and all too quick to dictate "the line" to others.

"It is little wonder the fallout has been so huge and sympathy for Australia has been in such short supply."

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