By Matt Richens @mattrichens
Opinion - Australian cricket's caretaker captain Tim Paine could do a lot worse than giving former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum a call for some advice.
Tim Paine and Brendon McCullum Photo: Photosport
The ball tampering and conspiring to cheat saga in Cape Town is rock bottom time for the Saggy Greens and they can bury their heads in the African sand in search of new lows, or they can take a scalpel to what they do now and rebuild.
The Black Caps' modern day cricketing rock bottom happened at the same Newlands ground five years ago and as dark as that was for McCullum's men, growth came from it.
It was the first test, McCullum won the toss and opted to bat. Just 117 balls later, his side were all out. In fewer than 20 overs, they'd been embarrassed for 45 and extras, with 7, was the equal third top scorer. Seven players failed to score more than two.
It was embarrassing for the fans and left the side open to a lot of deserved ridicule - a very similar situation to what's happening to the Australians.
A spot of failed ball tampering by other sides would not have received this much furore.
There is a big chunk of schadenfreude around Steve Smith and co being caught and for those already annoyed at Australia for being the bullies of world cricket, this was an absolute treat.
How can a side who have, for years, claimed the moral high ground and somehow painted themselves as the guardians of the invisible line that teams must not cross, jump over it so far?
A team that can try and mentally disintegrate an opposition player, but complain when one of them bite back. How on one hand can they swear black and blue they would never do anything to dent the Spirit of the Game, then take to it so blatantly with an illegally wide bat?
They're hard to like.
There is something so sweet about bullies getting their comeuppance, isn't there?
McCullum and co realised five years ago their reputation was poor. In short, they realised they weren't bigger than the black cap they wore and were custodians of a position that represented. And they started acting accordingly. And it worked.
They improved and so did their support; how would Australia like that about now.
Smith admitted guilt and has been stood down as Australian skipper and the fact Warner was dethroned from his vice captain position too means he was complicit as part of the now ironically-named "leadership group" that conspired to cheat.
Both players are too good for Australia to ban long-term, but an example needs to be made of them by Cricket Australia if they are to grow as a team and turn around their childish ways.
The fact this has embarrassed so many Australian fans means Cricket Australia need to take it seriously because those fans will talk with their feet.
Cricket Australia, however, are not the only ones who need to act and move quick.
The ICC needs to have a look at the outrage this has caused and move to align their punishments.
To the letter of the law, what Cameron Bancroft did could be punished with a 100 percent match-fee fine and a one-match ban for him while his team could have suffered, wait for it, five penalty runs and be made to change the ball.
Those punishments, like so many dished out by the ICC, are weak and good on boss Dave Richardson for going after Smith himself. Smith will now face a one-match ban despite not actually tampering with the ball.
More importantly than that, however, the ICC must start a proper discussion about ball tampering. Plenty of players have come out since Sunday morning admitting to doing it to get an advantage and it's hard to believe, despite what Smith said, that this was the first time his side have tried it on.
In fact, I don't believe it for one second.
The English side are now questioning the Aussies treatment of the ball in their recent 4-0 Ashes loss.
If it is so prevalent, the ICC need to either crack down on it, or start a discussion about why it's happening and work out a plan.
It's happening because the game is so heavily weighed towards the batsmen. Simple as that.
Reverse swing - the aim of ball tampering - is a great part of Test cricket and needs to be celebrated. All these former players need to put their collective minds together and come up with some other options to give the toothless ICC something to work with.
Or else just leave it all as it is, leave most if not all teams trying to find any tiny, sneaky advantage they can, and wait for another PR disaster.
* Matt Richens has been a sports writer for 12 years. He once scored more in an inter-school game than Brendon McCullum did in the opposition. Richens still dines out on it, McCullum doesn't remember.
