A sign that, for all their rhetoric, the halfwits who run Cricket Australia still fail to grasp the enormity of the offence committed in the game at Newlands last weekend came with the announcement by James Sutherland, its Chief Executive, that Darren Lehmann, the coach who has presided over one of the most degenerate and unpopular teams in test history, will keep his job. Australia must start tempering their disgrace, not add to it: and that, among other things, means Lehmann admitting his part in creating an appalling culture, and going.

When Steve Smith – sent home with David Warner and Cameron Bancroft – resigned on Monday as captain of Rajasthan Royals, Manoj Badale, co-owner of the IPL T20 franchise, said: “This will be a difficult time for Steve as well, given how much he cares about the game.” What? If somebody really cares about cricket – particularly about test cricket, which has its front foot in the grave as it is – are there not better ways to show it than by cheating at its highest level? Can anyone who really “cares about the game” reconcile that concern with entering into a conspiracy that is cricket’s equivalent of a criminal enterprise?