Australia's cricket leadership has lost the plot. As this disreputable tour descended from the gutter into the sewer, the mythical line the Australians use as the yardstick for their behaviour has not only become blurred but disappeared altogether.

The disconnect from what Steve Smith's men deem as acceptable behaviour compared to what the majority of the public back home has become as wide as the Indian Ocean which separates them.

Heads must roll: Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland leaves a media conference in Melbourne as the ball-tampering scandal gathered steam.

Smith's mea culpa where he failed to recognise how untenable his post had become is the latest example.

That Australia did not emerge with the clear moral high ground after the disgraceful sledge to David Warner about his wife and the brainless actions of some Cricket South Africa officials should have triggered retrospection.