Steve Smith's Men: Behind Australian Cricket's Fall

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Description

He was top of the world, with numbers bettered only by Don Bradman then captain Steve Smith led his Australian team into a cheating scandal that stunned cricket. Media exploded and million-dollar contracts were torn up. Australias prime minister expressed the public anger and disappointment: Our cricketers are role models, and cricket is synonymous with fair play.

But there was more to the story than the actions of a few young men. A tangle of personality, politics and culture had led them to this point.

Geoff Lemon witnessed that story from commentary boxes and press conferences, and was there in South Africa for its final act. This is a frank, fearless and often humorous account of the path from Ashes high to Cape Town low, from someone who watched it all unfold.

Reviews

'The perfect antidote to whingeing Pom syndrome: a beautifully executed forensic analysis of the Australian cricketing psyche.' * Richard Charkin, Chairman of John Wisden *

Author Bio

Geoff Lemonhas covered cricket as a writer and broadcaster since 2010, including touring with the Australian mens and womens teams since 2013, for outlets including the ABC, BBC, Wisden Almanack, TheGuardian, The Cricketer, The Saturday Paper and Cricinfo. He has worked on radio and television in Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean, Ireland and the UAE, and hosts cricket podcast The Final Word. His writing outside sport appears in places like Best Australian Stories, The Monthly and Meanjin. Hes editor of one of Australias oldest literary publications, Going Down Swinging, and formerly directed the National Young Writers Festival. His previous books were the essay collection The Sturgeon General Presents, collaborative novel Willow Pattern, and poetry collection Sunblind.