25 March

The cricket scandal says as much about cricket fans as it does players. The Big Bash and T20 in general is the cancer that funds the behaviour, and the destruction of the culture of the game. And the public love their T20. Once you turn the game into a gambling-led circus where only more bowlers being smashed around the ground is enough to satisfy the public appetite, and players become mercenaries and ‘teams’ just a temporary assortment of highly paid mercenary gladiators, it’s game over. Literally. Are you not entertained? Maximus saw the rot in the culture of Rome, which he also saw the public’s full culpability for. T20 is cricket’s Roman circus. But we’ll see whether anything changes or whether this only becomes an opportunity for rival teams to sink the boot into Australia. The cheating and corruption is everywhere, and much worse than this too in other places. That’s the real issue here, but I’m betting (pun intended) it won’t be the one that gets sorted.