The surreal ball tampering story from the Cape Town Test match has unfolded at a breathtaking pace over the last few days. While Australia mourns the demise of its proud cricket tradition there is a clear sense of schadenfreude among cricket followers in the rest of the world. Given the culture that has evolved in the Aussie teams since the days of Steve Waugh, the Aussies had it coming.
I think there are lessons to be learnt from this sorry episode, and instead of rejoicing in the misery of the Aussies, other teams need to take a step back, think about what they are doing, and make the necessary course corrections. So what are the lessons from Cape Town?
Team culture drives behaviour
Culture matters, and the tone for team culture is set at the
very top. Culture is the environment that determines which behaviours are
frowned upon, and which ones are allowed to flourish, or even encouraged. There
can’t be a better (or worse) example of the effects of culture than what Darren
Lehmann has done to the Aussie team. Lehmann was brought in by the Aussies to
re-introduce the “hard edge” in the team in 2013. Lehmann has a history of
boorish behaviour, making loose statements, and disrespecting the opposition. I
have long been a big critic of Lehmann and have written about his hypocrisy
several times.
The folks in Cricket Australia who brought in Lehmann
promoted this culture of excessive sledging, disrespect for the opposition, and
pushing the boundaries of fair play unless caught and sanctioned. All this
bravado about “playing hard and fair”, “head butting the line”, “banter is fine”
has become the Aussie cricket culture. The culture was ripe for the seeds of
cheating to be sown.
The lesson we must learn is that any visible signs of
undesirable cultural traits must be nipped in the bud. When Lehmann said that
Australian crowds must send Broad back crying from the Ashes, Cricket Australia
should have censured him, and apologized for his statement. When Lehmann said
that the Aussie team would “head butt” the line, he should have been given a
dressing down and asked what he meant. Hell, he should not even have been given
the job.
Brendon McCullum provides a shining example of how a great
team culture can be developed. Our own Virat Kohli would do well to look at
McCullum and learn from him.
Dissent matters
In 2001, a flight of the now defunct Swiss airline Cross Air
crashed off Zurich airport. Investigations revealed that the crash was due to a
completely avoidable pilot error, which was made by the Captain. The cockpit
voice recorder established the remarkable fact that the First officer noticed that
the Captain was violating an altitude guideline and suggested that they must
increase their altitude. The Captain however completely ignored the suggestion,
and given the hierarchical culture in airlines, the First office kept his mouth
shut and allowed the Captain to make the error, causing the aircraft to crash
into a hill. The crash resulted in the death of 24 people including the cockpit
crew.
When the suggestion was made in Cape Town to tamper with the
cricket ball, everyone knew it was illegal, and those in the know had the
opportunity to put their foot down and not allow it to happen. They didn’t and
it has resulted in the biggest crisis in Australian cricket.
One of the major corrective actions that followed the Cross
Air crash was mandatory training for flight crew to have the skill and courage
to challenge what they deemed inappropriate, and this is the second lesson for
cricket. Cricket must look at doing the same because sports teams are big on "standing up for their mates". In particular this is a big red
flag for the Indian team. After Anil Kumble was unceremoniously dumped as the
head coach, we brought in Ravi Shastri. Shastri
is an extroverted, articulate guy, but the problem is that he is very unlikely
to challenge anything Kohli does. Given Kohli’s strong personality, there is no
counterbalance in case he does anything remotely inappropriate in the pursuit of winning. And we know
that culture deterioration often starts with small things that go unchallenged.
Winning isn’t everything
I will stick my neck out and say that New Zealand is perhaps
the most loved cricket team in the world. They certainly are my favourite team,
and when they play India I almost feel guilty rooting against them! One of the
most disappointing sports moments for me in recent times was New Zealand losing
the World Cup finals in 2015. When I see Kiwi players like Craig McMillan and
Neil Wagner sledging the opposition, I fervently hope that such culture does
not take hold in that team. So far it has not.
The Kiwis are not the number one team in any format. They
perhaps lose as much as they win, but they consistently punch above their
weight. By population, the country is just
about the size of Kolkata. However they
are always up for a scrap, and play hard without disrespecting their
opposition. Winning is important but it isn’t everything, and such a mindset
needs to be carefully cultivated to prevent teams from using unfair and illegal
means to win. My son plays competitive golf, and I have often seen kids cheat
at golf because their parents knowingly and unknowingly put a lot of pressure
on them to win. Whenever my kid comes back from a tournament round, I never ask him his score. I ask him if he was happy with the round, what was his best shot, and what he learnt that day.
So the lesson for the cricket administrators and players is
to celebrate fair play as much as winning.
So there you go – Cape Town offers lessons far beyond the
obvious ones, and teams around the world would do well to carefully look at
what they must do to avoid going the Aussie way.
