The Guyana Harpy Eagles returned home as heroes. They were welcomed at the airport by their Minister of Sport Charles Ramson Jr., Director of Sport Steve Ninvalle, Guyana Cricket Board president Bissoondyal Singh and Assistant Director of Sports Franklin Wilson; plus, a cultural show. According to the Kaiteur News, the Minister “recognised the likes of assistant coach and ex-Guyana spinner, Garvin Nedd, head coach Ryan Hercules and a number of players, including the eldest member of the team and leading wicket-taker in the Caribbean, Veerasammy Permaul.” This is the same Veerasammy Permaul, who was just fined 75% of his match fee for a Level 2 breach of the Cricket West Indies Code of Conduct—for ball-tampering. For cheating. I read the Kaieteur report in its entirety, curious to see if there was any mention by the officials of the ball-tampering incidents that both Permaul and Kevlon Anderson—who was fined 90% of his match fee—pleaded guilty to. There was none. That was disturbing. It was both disturbing and disappointing because the wrong message was being sent to the players in the Caribbean about standards. The impression one gets coming out of Guyana is that those instances of cheating were downplayed. That tone is inconsistent with the statement made by Cricket West Indies president Dr Kishore Shallow in congratulating the Harpy Eagles: “While we celebrate the success of the season, I want to remind players that Cricket West Indies holds the integrity of the game in the highest regard. There is zero tolerance for conduct that undermines the spirit of cricket and brings the game into disrepute.” The question that comes to mind his how exactly is CWI demonstrating “zero tolerance” for ball-tampering? With fines? Dear reader, do you recall Cricket Australia’s response to “Sandpapergate”? That was the ball-tampering scandal that erupted in the 2018 Test series between Australia and South Africa in which Cameron Bancroft was caught by television cameras trying to rough up one side of the ball with sandpaper in the third Test at Newlands. The upshot of that was that he, his captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner received bans from their board, and coach Darren Lehmann stepped down from his post. That, one can say, was a clear, emphatic response to what was recognised and accepted as a major stain on Australia’s cricket. CWI is now speaking about reviewing the rules to strengthen sanctions for this offence. The question is though, why were the sanctions not stronger to begin with? Ball-tampering is not a new phenomenon. According to ICC rules, the infringement can bring penalties ranging from fines to bans. In 2019 Nicholas Pooran was banned by the ICC for four T20 Internationals after admitting to tampering with the ball during an ODI against Afghanistan. Pooran issued a public apology. I am yet to hear though of an apology from either Permaul or Anderson. Neither has there been a public apology from their captain, Tevin Imlach, for those incidents that occurred in the crucial final round four-day game against the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force. Imlach however has expressed regret over the incidents. This is what he said on the SportsMax Zone programme on cable TV: “The guys would have accepted the charges and that basically said that they did it, so we just have to support them and try to move forward from it. Obviously it is negative; it’s not something we want to be associated with, so hopefully we could move past it as a team... “Obviously very disappointed because it puts a cloud over everything we would have worked for; everything we would have done throughout the tournament. We would have played good cricket; we played six games, no issue and to come in the last one and for this to happen, it puts a big negative around what would have been a good season.” Asked however, whether or not he had spoken to the offending players, Imlach indicated he had not. “We were trying to stay on a positive note because everything was going on in the game and you still had a game to basically win and we still had a job to do; after that, was just time to go home.” A couple things here. How is it possible that your team gets penalised five runs for ball-tampering in the first innings, and you say nothing to the offending player, and then it happens a second time, with a different player and nothing is said? For someone whose name has been mentioned as a future West Indies captain, those statements and actions as regards to these incidents are inadequate. And lacking in the general Guyana public response are statements that clearly condemn cheating and indicate it would not be tolerated. It is understandable why some in the region would question whether the incidents at the Queen’s Park Oval were isolated occurrences or not. Have the Harpy Eagles done this before? As expected, Red Force coach Rayad Emrit has condemned the ball-tampering, as have some Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board officials. But had the script been flipped and Red Force players been involved, what would have been the local response? I expect that like most things, these ball-tampering incidents will blow over and everyone will move on. But that would be a mistake. What must not escape the people both at the CWI administrative level and those directly involved in the cricket in the territories, is that what happens off the field with player discipline and development, has an impact on what will take place on the field. If high standards are not insisted upon in matters like punctuality and conduct, then the calibre of player and the quality of play the regional team aspires to produce, will be that much more difficult to develop. In other words, WI cricket will remain stuck where it has been for the past 30 years.