You won’t find anyone with better insight into how both the South African and Australian teams approach the game of cricket than Mickey Arthur.

He coached the Proteas between 2005 and 2010, and then went on to take charge of the Ozzie team in November 2011, and is the current coach of Pakistan.

His Ozzie tenure ended with a sacking in June of 2013, a decision taken in large part because Cricket Australia wasn’t happy with the team culture he had cultivated.

Of course it was Darren ‘Boof’ Lehmann who took over from him, and look where that’s taken them.

This morning we saw David Warner’s first public statement since he was found to be at the centre of the plot to cheat, but it’s the words of Mickey Arthur that have really hit home.

Penning an honest piece on Players Voice, Arthur starts by saying “Unfortunately, it was always going to end like this”.

He offers a stinging criticism of the entire set-up, so let’s get stuck in:

Despite generational change, independent reviews and too many behavioural spotfires to list, Cricket Australia and the national team had demonstrated no real willingness or desire to improve the culture within their organisation from season to season.

That could lead to only one conclusion. An explosion…

It gives me no pleasure to say this. Indeed, for the period between 2011 and 2013 it was my job, as national team coach, to make the very changes I just mentioned were needed.

That I wasn’t able to advance that cause disappoints me. I am not for a moment saying I was blameless. There are decisions I would change if I had my time again. But there were other factors at play, factors that have long been associated with Australian cricket.

Yes, Mickey, spill the beans!

Settle in:

I see very little in the way of personal responsibility within the Australian team. Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith admitted what they had done at a press conference, but they didn’t have much choice. They had been caught red-handed. And even then, they didn’t come completely clean. They said they had used an adhesive tape on the ball when Cricket Australia’s own investigation ruled that it had been sandpaper.

Every other Test playing nation feels Australia looks down at them and I say this as someone who has coached two of them. I don’t know if this attitude is because the Aussies get paid more money – some of them earn in a Test what many of my Pakistani players earn in a year – or because they think they’re better cricketers, or that they live in a beautiful country with great facilities.

Arthur was sacked back in 2013 for what has come to be known as Homework-Gate (you can read more about that here), and he readily admits his mistakes in the lead up to the decision to fire him.

But, and here’s where it gets spicy, he also has his gripes:

I’m Australian now, I’ve got my passport, but back then I wasn’t. I didn’t fit in. I hadn’t come through the Australian system and played 100 Tests. I wasn’t part of the old boys’ club.

I was told I didn’t understand the Australian way…

The players, in many ways, were a law unto themselves. When I pushed hard on issues of culture, I was told by my superiors to back off. And when I softened my approach, I was told to go in harder…

The warning signs were there from the start. Disrespect from the players towards support staff. Arriving late for team commitments. Moaning. It was always CA’s fault, or someone else’s. I used to say, ‘Guys, it’s time to look into the mirror. What you will see is not perfect. Consider that before you cast judgements on others.’

…To me, the episode [Homework-Gate] was a microcosm of a problem that remains with the Australian team to this day: the sense of entitlement among the players.

The now infamous punch-up between David Warner and Joe Root in 2013 really didn’t help Arthur, but he claims that the way the team handled the situation was another example of their failure to take accountability.

I didn’t find out about the incident until two days after it happened, and only then because of a disagreement between two players in regards to our fines committee.

I won’t retell the story – it’s all been reported many times – other than to say I phoned James Sutherland the night I learned of what happened.

He castigated me for not knowing about it earlier. I was like, ‘How the hell am I supposed to know about it if no one tells me? I’m not hanging around the Walkabout at 1am’.

In frustration, I said something along the lines of, ‘Do you want me to carry on holding their hands or take action?’.

I was out of a job shortly after.

So what does Mickey think is the way forward, now that the team culture has been laid bare for all to see?

The difference between tampering the ball and shining the ball is huge. I have never seen any object on a cricket field being used to alter the condition. That’s taking it way too far.

The Aussies didn’t need to do this, but they did. It’s the result of an issue that had been festering away and should’ve been addressed a long time ago. It was always going to end this way. An incident like this had to happen for the necessary cultural shift to take place.

Australian cricket has been in an ivory tower for too long. They had to take decisive action. If they didn’t, things would inevitably return to the way they had been and another major incident would’ve been inevitable.

The job to repair the damage to the Australian cricket brand is underway.

Quite a long way back, innit.

Yes, Faf du Plessis has been done twice, and Vern Philander was also fined 75% of his match fee for “scratching the ball with his fingers and thumb” back in 2014.

None of those incidents are comparable to what happened at Newlands, and kudos to Cricket Australia for taking action, but they’ve played their part in allowing this culture of ‘win at all costs’ for far too long.

Remember these pathetic scenes at the Ashes trophy presentation in Sydney back in January, with the Ozzies having wrapped up a 4-0 series win?

Stay classy, San Diego.

Darren Lehmann, you might get away with ‘not knowing’ about that sandpaper this time around, but your role in this scandal won’t be forgotten.

[source:playersvoice]