In 1953, American playwright Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible. The Crucible is ostensibly a dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in Massachusetts in the 17th Century. It follows the story of John Procter, a good and decent man that is falsely accused of witchcraft and put on trial for his life.
Of course the Salem Witch Trials were all nonsense. Miller wrote The Crucible as an implied critique of McCarthyism, the term used to describe the hearings conducted by US Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s. McCarthy was obsessed with rooting out perceived communist spies from within the US government, and this led to him often making accusations of treason based on little or no evidence. The result was that history considers McCarthy to be an idiot, but not before his public and often baseless inquisitions irreparably damaged reputations and lives.
Miller may well have been a prophet before his time. I’ve often thought about the message of The Crucible in the past few years as extremist ideas and identity politics seem to have totally taken over the public discourse. Orthodoxies of thought are defined and controlled by our social media echo chambers. In some communities, the social price to pay for stepping outside these boundaries can be high.
We live in an age of hype. The world didn’t end when Donald Trump was elected president. Brexit will come and go in whatever form, and the sun will still rise and set as it always has. But the hysteria that surrounds these and other issues is sometimes comical. There are people who are afraid to say what they truly think around the office water cooler for fear of forever being branded insensitive and offensive at best, or at worst a racist misogynist.
So the cricketing world needs to get a grip. The fervor surrounding “sandpapergate” is simply aping the same process that accompanies just about any other modern day political crisis or social upheaval. Hysteria takes over and the faux-indignation becomes a goal unto itself. Of course Steve Smith and co are clearly guilty, but I sense we have lost all proportion. It’s like the #metoo campaign, which morphed from a good idea into a tidal wave of nonsense that destroyed many good reputations undeservedly. Senator McCarthy would be proud.
Yes there are layers and nuance. Clearly, there are other issues at play here, and these issues do somewhat justify a certain degree of outrage beyond the relatively minor offence that ball tampering is. The authorities will have to deal with a team that is clearly unloved even at home, and also try understand how it is that an asshole like David Warner found himself in a position of leadership. The appropriate sanctions will come and they will most likely fit the real crime though it may not be enough to placate the baying masses.
But really this whole incident has distracted attention from what is probably the far bigger story. The Aussie teams that ruined my adolescence could get under the skin of anybody. Countless opponents melted from the heat generated by their potent blend of just the right verbals mixed with total mental domination. It’s why we hated them. Back then they were clever, now they have become simply arrogant schoolyard bullies.
And bullies are easy to deal with. They are not nearly as impressive as they think themselves to be. You stand up to them and watch them shrink back to size. I’m not such a fan of players verbally abusing each other, but to see an Australian cricket team complain that sledging was unsettling them was one of my childhood dreams come true. The mighty had fallen long before Bancroft thought he could stick his hand down his trousers and no one would notice.
At his trial, John Procter confesses to save his life, but refuses to sign the confession. To do so would ruin his name thus condemning him to a fate worse than death. He pleads with the court, begging them to rather tell the world that “Procter broke to his knees and wept like a woman.” For him weak behaviour is acceptable. Destroying his reputation is not. Procter is hanged for his refusal to sign. He dies, but with his dignity intact.
This series Australia have wept like little girls and also ruined their good name. For almost all cricketing fans around the world, this is simultaneously sad as well as awesome. This fall from grace has been on the cards for years and it may take years to put it right. They will start at the crucible that is the Wanderers on Friday. Good luck to them.
GPF
greenpridefan 