So Steve Smith was ‘traumatised’ at the reaction to his act of cheating in a Test match. Australia are in South Africa for their first Test series after the incident known as ‘sandpapergate’. On their last tour in 2018 Smith was captain and had a role in using sandpaper to tamper with the ball in violation of the laws of the game.

Smith’s vice-captain David Warner was banned too; there has been an interesting narrative since. When Smith returned to the crease post-ban, he made 144 and 142 in the Edgbaston Test despite relentless booing and hostility from the English crowd. He finished with 774 runs in the series, a tale of guts and gumption. Was it the start or the end of redemption?

In the same series, Warner made 95 in 10 innings, being dismissed seven times by Stuart Broad. But he later made an unbeaten 335, the highest score by an Australian against Pakistan. According to Geoff Lemon, who wrote a book on the sandpaper story, “Public opinion firmly settled on Warner being the criminal and........

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