Pakistan fans set an example for us all to follow with treatment of Steve Smith and David Warner

SAM MORSHEAD AT TAUNTON: There was still substantial partisan support for Sarfraz's side. But gone were the taunts and leers, the bitter swipes in the name of banter, the head-splitting sound of sandpaper being scratched between palms

Sarfraz Ahmed called it.

“I don’t think Pakistani people will be doing it like that,” he said, 24 hours before his team’s game against Australia, when asked whether Steve Smith and David Warner would be subjected to jeers and jibes once again at Taunton.

“Pakistan people love cricket and they love to support it, and they love the players.”

He was right. And the atmosphere was all the better for it.

The treatment of Smith and Warner has veered from ‘pantomime villain’ to ‘suspected witch’ over the course of the first fortnight of this World Cup, their respective returns to the international arena greeted with cacophonous boos and red-faced uproar wherever they have been.

David Warner made a century for Australia against Pakistan

At Bristol, the noise was borderline aggressive, the sort of reception you might expect of the accused arriving at court on charges of a heinous crime.

At The Oval, Virat Kohli - hardly a drinking buddy of either player - felt compelled to step in and ask the Indian supporters to tone down their tantrums.

Here, though, nothing.

Not from the Pakistanis who pitched up in the West Country in their droves, and not from the cricket-mad locals making the most of the chance to actually see some cricket during the English winter’s curious summer staycation.

It was still loud, very loud, from well before the first ball. And there was still substantial partisan support for Sarfraz’s side. But gone were the taunts and leers, the bitter swipes in the name of banter, the head-splitting sound of sandpaper being scratched between palms.

The gobby chorus of “cheat”, which echoed around Bristol on Australia’s first outing of the tournament with the rhythm and class of a cat coughing up a furball, was gone too.

“Pakistan Zindabad. Pakistan Zindabad. Pakistan Zindabad.”

Sarfraz obviously knows his people. Now it’s time for supporters of other nations to take their lead.

It is more than 14 months since Smith and Warner created, and then covered up, a plan to alter the condition of a cricket ball in Cape Town. It was a callous act, but not isolated in the sport’s history.

Pakistan fans at Taunton

They have since served substantial sentences - much greater than those demanded by the game’s code of conduct. They have been penitent, and they have reintegregrated themselves within the Australia setup under new leadership without the slightest hint of commotion.

For as long as they play professional cricket, Smith and Warner will forever have the spectre of that Newlands scandal peering over their shoulders, nibbling away at their subconscious.

They do not need us doing that job for them. They, like us, are human, and fallible. And they, like us, will be affected by constant abuse.

Yes, they cheated that day in March 2018, but can any cricketer - from the village green upwards - honestly claim not to have sought some form of dubious advantage over the course of their career?

Do we believe in second chances and rehabilitation?

Does the sport not need to move on, celebrate its own spectacle, and live in the moment once again?

That was the case in Taunton on Wednesday; three-quarters of the ground wearing Pakistan green and channeling their voices behind their own players, rather than heckling themselves hoarse dragging up ghosts.

And it was wonderful.

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