Kerre McIvor: Aussie cricketers will do well to copy NZ

Australian cricket player Steve Smith escorted by police officers to a departure area at OR Tambo International airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo / AP

When disgraced former Australian cricket captain Steve Smith apologised after an expletive-laden outburst during last year's acrimonious test series with India, his apology seemed genuine.

He was an intense kind of guy, he said, and he'd allowed his emotions to get the better of him. It was a big stride for him. Something he could really learn from and that would help him continue to grow as an individual and as a leader.

He had accused Murali Vijay of cheating after a contentious catch. Smith has now been outed as a cheat himself - a stupid one at that - and his apology was clearly just weasel words.

Smith and deputy captain David Warner have been banned from all cricket for a year after instructing new boy Cameron Bancroft to tamper with the ball to try to get an advantage.

Warner, it seems, was the instigator of the plan and he has been told he will never again be considered for a leadership position by Cricket Australia. Smith's sin was knowing about the plan and sanctioning it. The newbie, Bancroft, has been banned for nine months.

For those who don't follow cricket, roughing up the ball, in this case with sandpaper, will exaggerate the way it swings, making it harder for the batsman to read. It is expressly against the rules for the bowling side to tamper with the ball but representatives from just about every cricketing nation have been doing it for years.

England's Mike Atherton was fined £3000 in 1994 for having dirt in his pocket to rough up the ball.

Pakistan forfeited a test match against England in 2006 when match officials accused them of ball tampering.

South Africa's current captain, Faf du Plessis, was fined 100 per cent of his match fee when found guilty of ball tampering while touring Australia a couple of years ago.

Even New Zealand's late, great Martin Crowe admitted knowing one of his bowlers was gouging the ball with a bottle top in a test series against Pakistan because they believed Pakistan were doing it, too.

So if everyone is doing it, why have the Aussies been punished so harshly?

It appears they're being rounded on by the cricketing world because they are an unlikeable team.

They have become known as a team that dishes it out in spades but is unable to take any kind of stick in return. And their compatriots have turned against them because cricket and the men who wear the baggy green are revered in Australia.

Cricket is Australia's No 1 participation sport – a quarter of players are female – and captaining the men's national team is considered the second-most-important job in Australia, after the prime minister.

So, yeah. Having your senior players exposed as dumb, arrogant cheats is going to hit Aussies where it hurts.

The only Australian who has seen any redeeming factor in the sorry debacle is Trevor Chappell, architect of the infamous underarm bowl. He says he is glad he'll finally lose the most despised man in Australian cricket label.

The team will be able to recover from this, and hopefully Bancroft will be given another chance. I can't imagine the sort of pressure he felt when Warner, with Smith's implicit endorsement, instructed him to damage the ball.

The coach, Darren Lehmann, has said he wants to take a leaf out of New Zealand's book, but has since stood down.

That would have been a smart move.

The New Zealand cricket team lost a lot of respect and support from the New Zealand public a number of years ago – former captain Brendon McCullum concedes the cricketers were considered overpaid, underperforming prima donnas.

And they were. I gave up on cricket during that nadir. But under coach Mike Hesson the Black Caps developed a culture the country can be proud of and produced cricketers kids could admire and respect.

The Aussies are a long, long way from that but they have too long a tradition of cricket and too many brilliant players to be down for long. I hope they never lose their play-hard attitude. It would just be nice to see them learn how to play fair.

• Kerre McIvor's Sunday Sessions is on NewstalkZB today, 9am-noon.