ARN responds to criticism
For anyone watching the Steve Smith media conference held at Sydney airport just an hour after his plane had touched down, it was clear that the young man was distraught, genuinely remorseful for his own stupidity.
The long trip from South Africa had given him time to dwell on who and how many he had let down and how much he had lost. In a blink of an eye he had gone from the lofty position of Captain of Australia to nothing more than a cheating scoundrel. Suddenly he found himself taunted by cricket fans around the world who, just hours before, had held him in the highest of esteem regardless of which team they supported.
Banned from playing for 12 months and sponsors desserting him in rapid succession, his liveliehood shattered, Steve Smith bore the world on his shoulders.
Yet, he was man enough to front the radio mics and the TV cameras, take all the blame himself and give a whole-hearted apology – not one of those mealy mouth, “I’m sorry if anyome felt offended” copouts – but a full, unequivocal mea culpa. Like teamate Cameron Bancroft before him, it seemed his greatest, most tearful regret was that he had betrayed his parents’ upbringing and the ethical standards they had instilled in him.
Enter the clown, see the video. Or as News.com.au put it: Idiot hijacks Smith conference
The Sydney Morning Herald said:
Anger at ‘disgraceful’ KIIS FM stunt as Steve Smith bares broken heart
As Steve Smith fronted cameras on home soil for the first time since the ball tampering scandal engulfed the team on Saturday, the last thing the former captain of the Australian cricket team would have expected was a radio talk show stunt to make light of his heartbreaking moment.
But that’s exactly what the distraught young cricketer got when he agreed to take a few questions and landed on a serial pest from KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O show.
Peter Deppeler, also known as ‘intern Pete‘, has a penchant for turning up to various events and asking inappropriate questions for laughs. But this time his attempt at humour went down like a lead balloon, as
Deppeler informed a tearful Smith that his transgressions were nothing compared to what “what Davina and Dean did on Married at First Sight“.
Australians watching the press conference from home were having none of it, and took to social media to say so.
news.com.au reported:
Steve Smith’s emotional press conference interrupted by heckler
AS STEVE Smith poured his heart out to Australia, his big moment was hijacked by a ridiculous comment from a radio show.
Saying he wanted to take a “change of tack” Pete (the intern) said: “I want to let you know from the perspective [of the] non-sports community of Australians, to see you upset tonight is very sad.”
“Mate I’ve got to tell you…hold your head high for what you have done because what’s actually been worse is what Davina and Dean did on Married At First Sight.”
As the former Australian captain fought back tears and apologised to the nation and his parents for his role in the scandal, one of the first comments came from “Intern Pete” from the Kyle and Jackie O show.
Saying he wanted to take a “change of tack” Pete said: “I want to let you know from the perspective [of the] non-sports community of Australians, to see you upset tonight is very sad.
“Mate I’ve got to tell you…hold your head high for what you have done because what’s actually been worse is what Davina and Dean did on Married At First Sight.”
As a bewildered Smith watched tearfully on, the comment was quickly cut off by media handlers and fans reacted swiftly.
In a general media statement issued to radioinfo among others, an ARN spokesperson said: The ball tampering incident has evoked an extraordinary reaction from a broad range of Australian audiences, both those who follow cricket, and those who don’t know anything about the sport.
“Obviously the majority of those asking questions at the airport tonight were sports journalists, unlike Intern Pete, so Pete’s question was framed for those who don’t follow cricket.
“But as you can hear when you listen to the audio of the question, Pete genuinely felt for Steve, as he tried to inject some warmth to what was a difficult situation.”
Nonetheless social media erupted with posts such as these:
The HIT network’s 2Day FM was forced to defend itself from keyboard warriors on Twitter who hadn’t caught up with the fact that Kyle and Jackie O had departed the station almost five years ago.
