Comment: Isn't anyone prepared to stand with Steve Smith?

Steve Smith cheated. I get it. And maybe that's all that matters.

But maybe, just maybe, we can all put down our pitchforks for a second, take a deep breath, and try to look at this from another angle.

Say for instance if, instead of giving Cameron Bancroft the OK to tamper with the ball in South Africa, Smith had asked Mitchell Starc to deliberately run on to the protected area of the pitch, would you be calling for him to be sacked as Australian captain?

If he'd deliberately made physical contact with an opponent — perhaps squaring up with Kagiso Rabada for the bump he landed in the second Test — would the Australian Sports Commission be demanding he immediately fly home from South Africa?

Under the International Cricket Council's Code of Conduct, both are just as bad as what Smith did.

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You can argue that's a blight on the ICC's Code of Conduct, but perhaps there's a reason what he tried to pull off with Cameron Bancroft only resulted in a one-game ban for the skipper and a slap on the wrist for his young accomplice.

Perhaps it's because despite the stigma attached to ball tampering the reality is there's no real guarantee changing the condition of the Kookaburra will have a direct impact on the game.

Perhaps the end result of rubbing granules of soil on the ball is not so dissimilar to using lolly-saturated saliva, and it's unfair to severely penalise one and OK the other?

Need more evidence? The umpires didn't even change the ball Bancroft tried to rough up!

But the vision was awful and imaginations ran wild when Smith revealed the leadership group was behind the tactic.

Suddenly our cricketing heroes were evil masterminds huddled around a cauldron inside their dressing room, brewing a plot to destroy the game.

Seriously, they could have all injected steroids before calling a bookie to organise throwing the match and the response some are calling for — the end of Smith and vice-captain David Warner's careers — couldn't have been any more severe.

Here's another unpopular take: Cricket Australia did the right thing by launching an investigation and waiting for its findings to take action. You know why? Because none of us really know what was said, and by who, inside that dressing room.

Maybe it was Bancroft's idea. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe Smith said it was the leadership group to protect a young player. Maybe he was the chief architect. That's the point. We don't know yet.

When you hear legends of the game like Simon Katich, Jason Gillespie and Adam Gilchrist — all level-headed commentators — signal this should mark the end of Smith's captaincy, you understand it's not a trivial matter.

Even more so when you hear Jim Maxwell, the voice of the ABC, close to tears.

But isn't anyone prepared to stand with Steve Smith, or at least sympathise with him?

This is a 28-year-old man who has only ever wanted to win games of cricket for his country and in the middle of one of his most heated battles appears to have made an error in judgment — and didn't have anyone nearby offering better advice.

And what he's accused of doing, according to cricketers everywhere, is something that is certainly not uncommon in the sport.

"Cheating and cricket have always walked together, hand-in-hand, breaking into the occasional dance, game of hopscotch or just an old fashioned skip in unison," wrote former Aussie ODI player Brett Geeves in a column for Fox Sports Australia.

"You are all of delusional, blind and foolish if you think this most recent act of 'cheating', 'ball tampering', 'line breaking', 'spirit ruining', 'career suicide for Smith, (coach Darren) Lehmann, and the leadership group'- or whatever words you choose to spew from atop your high horse — is not a common happening in cricket all over the world. Open your eyes, please!"

Former English champ Andrew Flintoff took issue with the convenient pot-shotting. "Although Smith and co are indefensible there's plenty of hypocrisy knocking about on social media today," Flintoff tweeted.

So did former Test bowler Derek Pringle: "Aussies gone down in a heap of poetic justice," he tweeted. "(But) still think reaction to ball tampering (over-the-top) though."

Even former South African first-class cricketer Davy Jacobs thought the reaction was excessive. "The Aussies cheated, yes, its disgraceful," he tweeted. "But yo man, easy on the judgments. People do stupid things sometimes, at all levels. Ban/fine/fire those involved, move on. Life is short, relax. Play with your kids, call your dad, go for dinner with your family. Seriously."

Smith may lose the captaincy but unless you know the full details of what happened perhaps it's best to reserve judgment until Cricket Australia's investigators do their jobs.

To say it's impossible to imagine him staying in the job because of the public outrage is madness. Facts should decide his future, not emotion.

Let's not tamper with the process.

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