The Australian cricket team has taken great pride in playing the game the hard way. But the Aussies have also been guilty of stretching the rules of the game in order to win at any cost.
But this desperation to win has landed Steven Smith's men in big trouble as the visitors have admitted to ball tampering during the third day of the ongoing third Test against South Africa at Cape Town.
Smith's admission that the leadership group knew about the cheating was shocking, to say the least.
Though Smith has denied any wrongdoing on the part of Australian head coach Darren Lehman in the incident, the way the latter passed on the message to 12th man Peter Handscomb on walkie-talkie once TV cameras flashed images of Cameron Bancroft using a yellow tape to alter the condition of the ball leaves no one in doubt that the Australian think tank knew what they were up to.
Smith himself was in the eye of the storm last year when he sought assistance from the dressing room on whether to go for a review after being declared lbw in the fourth innings of the Bengaluru Test against India.
Smith was quick to term it a 'brain fade' and he has called his latest act, which amounts to outright cheating, as 'embarrassing.'
The International Cricket Council (ICC) let Smith scot-free in the review row, but this time around he seems to be in big trouble if the reactions from the cricket world and Australia in particular are any indication. It was outrageous that the Australians tried such a trick in this age of technology where TV cameras catch almost everything on the field.
Though Smith and his deputy David Warner stood down from their respective roles before the start of the fourth day's play on Sunday, Cricket Australia has to take stern action against the erring players and the team management.
Australians try every trick in the book to get an edge over their rivals. Greg Chappell used it when he instructed his brother Trevor to bowl underarm with the Kiwis needing a six to tie a one-dayer at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1981.
But Smith and his men have stooped to a new low and Australian cricket will take some time to recover from this disgraceful act.