Now that the elite cleaning team has finally removed the mess at Cricket Australia headquarters caused by David Peever’s death by a thousand cuts, I’ll be frank with the man in question. David, your excruciating demise would not have happened if you were honest with yourself.
If you had been, arrogance would not have instructed you to try and survive the necessary bloodletting caused by the ball-tampering scandal. You would have looked in the mirror and said: “You know what, mate, it’s been a good run but the buck stops here.”
While on the subject of the danger of self-deception, the need to tell the truth and aphorisms, here is a word from the ultimate purveyor of decency, supposedly, Jesus Christ, who said: “The truth will set you free.”
The Australian cricketers have adopted a much-derided version of that “divine” affirmation. “Elite honesty” was among five buzz words in the Aussies’ dressing room for their one-day international against South Africa at Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday. The others were “we are Australia’s cricket team”, “make Australians proud”, “patience” and “pressure”.
Amid the mirth and contempt sparked by the adherence to elite honesty (it makes Shane Warne want to “vomit”), it seems its utility has been lost on the public. Remember, it was the longstanding bubble the Australian cricketers lived in that contributed to the ball-tampering scandal.
Don’t get hung up on the wording. Besides, isn’t it only natural that an elite team trying to foster more integrity among their members would employ such a term?
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In explaining the adoption of the term, Australian coach Justin Langer placed particular importance on self-honesty – “looking in the mirror” and not lying to yourself.
He was right to do so. Seven months on from the day Australian cricket imploded, the effects are still being felt. Telling the truth, including to yourself, is essential for a strong social fabric.
“The small sins of the individual culminate in the great sins of the state,” said Canadian intellectual Jordan Peterson.
But telling the truth isn’t easy, as Fyodor Dostoevsky noted in The Brothers Karamazov: “Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.”
Maybe if we were more truthful in our response to the cricketers’ appalling past behaviour, instead of kneeling before them, the implosion would not have occurred.
Mark Bode is a Fairfax journalist
