Ball-tampering row: 4 takeaways from Steve Smith's presser that expose the rut in Australian cricket

On Saturday, Australian cricket hit a low that'll take a long time to get out of. With captain Steve Smith leading from the front, the Aussies were found guilty of cheating the game.

It was day three of the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town, with the series tied 1-1 and the hosts running away with the match, when the Australians decided to bring the game to disrepute.

Opening batsman Cameron Bancroft was caught tampering with the ball by television cameras. While the damage was immediate, what followed said more about the rut that is Australian cricket at the moment.

Skipper Smith and Bancroft addressed the media after the day's play, and the takeaways from the meet were telling. Although Smith dug deep to front up to the barrage of questions, his statements in the presser were just as damaging as his team's actions on the field. He tried diplomacy and corporate glib talk, but ended up further exposing his team.

Here are four poignant takeaways from Smith and Bancroft's press conference on Saturday

The smokescreen of​ 'leadership group'

In what was a less than 10-minute presser, Smith used the term 'leadership group' about a zillion times. He said that the decision to cheat was solely the leadership group's, and that they were all equally embarrassed and guilty of the crime.

First thing, even if the idea to cheat was agreed to by a group of individuals, the final decision has to be of the captain. Smith refused to take names of the group's members, but it's speculated that they are David Warner, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. The idea might've germinated from one of these men, but the blame for actually going through with the act has to fall squarely on Smith.

In cricket, the captain often receives advice from his team-mates, but every decision he takes is his and his alone. For Smith to involve the 'leadership group' that many times in the press conference, and not state emphatically that the decision to cheat was taken by him, screams out his inefficiency and lack of courage as a leader.

Bancroft, the scapegoat

Smith revealed that they decided to tamper with the ball during the lunch interval. The reverse swing, which had been of immense use to them in the series thus far, was refusing to show up as the Proteas ran away with the contest. Hence, the Aussies decided that the only solution was to alter the condition of the ball and hope it starts reversing.

Now imagine this - Smith, Warner, Lyon, Starc and Hazlewood come up with the despicable idea to cheat, yet somehow, Bancroft ends up being the one who carries out the act. The young opener said in the presser that he got involved because he was in 'the vicinity' when the idea was being shaped.

Juniors in the team are natural choices for doing the dirty work. One would imagine, that work is restricted to braving up at short-leg/silly-point. The fact that Smith and the senior pros pushed a youngster in front of the bus says a lot about where 'the Australian way of playing cricket' is heading.

Has anyone seen the coach?

"No, the coaches weren't involved, it was purely the players and the leadership group who came up with this," Smith said on Saturday.

Contrary to the skipper's claim, there was clear video evidence that suggested substitute Peter Handscomb alerted Bancroft just before the latter shoved away the tiny, yellow object. Now, does Smith want us to believe that substitutes were part of the plan but head coach Darren Lehmann was clueless about the whole thing?

Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland made a statement on Sunday saying the board will thoroughly investigate the matter. If that were to happen with sincerity, the odds of Lehmann being found guilty are ripe.

Also, even if Lehmann wasn't involved in the cheating process, he should've turned up to face the music at the media conference. The 48-year-old's silence on the entire matter is deafening.

Too late to say sorry

To Smith's credit, he did spell out his and the team's misdeeds. The words 'sorry', embarrassing', and 'not in the spirit of the game' were said loud and clear. However, Smith shouldn't really expect anyone to buy his apology.

The 28-year-old said that 'deep down', he would've regretted his actions even if he wasn't caught. That's hard to believe considering Smith and Bancroft lied blatantly to the on-field umpires when summoned between overs.

The right thing for the Australians to do at that time was tell the umpires that the ball had been tampered with and must be replaced. For Smith to come clean only after a meeting with the match referee makes his apology look like nothing but a facade.