Shane Lee did say Steve Smith had seemed to him in Sydney a bomb reminiscent of Sandpaper gate waiting to go off ~ though his vocabulary was different ~ but Australia, ahead of Brisbane, came up with a near-perfect mix of apologies and protestations of innocence to obfuscate their stooping to conquer in the third, inconclusive Test, which had left the series open at 1-1 with the last one to go.

They have always known their job, and gone about it the way they hit upon. Which is why, first, captain Tim Paine and then coach Justin Langer played Smith’s wicket-raking ploy so far down that it seemed a trifle being made too much of, akin, perhaps, to gabbing about the price of potatoes when an Ivy League research paper was another option.

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“He’s doing it all the time when playing in the conventional format, shadow-batting is part of his daily chores,” went the unflustered explanation.

But when you seek to erase a rival batsman’s guard mark ~ Risabh Pant’s in the present instance ~ you, unwittingly to be sure, also reveal the extent of your frustration.

The Sydney wicket’s unresponsiveness came to be spoken of too by several home voices, including that of the coach, but in the welter of words uttered in exchanges with the media, there were only superficial references to the glaring lack of fair play, even by those who wren’t all that appreciative of the thing done.

Smith himself denied he had allowed himself any unfair tactics but when Sandpaper gate hit the headlines, he had been equally sharp and vehement in repudiating all charges initially. Melodrama came much later.

Time, however, was when there were people who did not mind telling the truth. In 1967, Richie Benaud, touring England and reacting to reports that he, as the captain, had six years earlier told Australian batsmen to walk if they knew they were out, wrote a letter to the editor of The Times, London, making it clear that he had not. The matter was left to the individuals concerned and conforming to the English custom of leaving it to the umpire was not his chief concern.

In the Lord’s Test of 1956, Benaud had been caught at the wicket when three but was given not out and went on to make 97, thereby clinching victory. So the ends justified the means even then, in a less toxic world.

Additionally, what unofficial Australia, with its racist abuse, showed itself capable of in Sydney might have seeded fears for the future. An anecdotal recalling of MAK Pataudi being asked, from Sydney’s Hill, decades ago where his goat was if he was Gandhi.

The nawab simply mimed his exasperation, complemented by gestures, to indicate that it was the wag who’d gone missing much to his – Pataudi’s – consternation. Peals of laughter followed. Australia also lavished a lot of love on Frank Worrell’s West Indies after a see-saw series which featured history’s first tied Test. Altered reality now exposes vulnerabilities galore.