Cricket Australia hurting game by going soft on incidents such as David Warner punching Joe Root David Warner was fined $11,500 and suspended until the start of the Ashes for punching English batsman Joe Root in a bar. CRICKET is on the nose in Australia due to a deadly quadrella: shameful behaviour, weak administration, high pay and poor performance. When the four align to form the ultimate "imperfect storm," like they did with the David Warner incident, the game ends up in the toilet. Dear old thing that she is, cricket invariably trembles at the knees, goes pale in the face and falls head-first into her porridge at the very thought of handing out a tough penalty to a player who needs it. It's happened again with Warner, suspended until the first Ashes Test for punching rival Joe Root but somehow escaping being sent home. Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has had some big moments this year, including the nailing of a rich television deal, but he has failed to learn that when it comes to discipline, words mean nothing, actions are everything. Harsh medicine is much better for a rebellious player than a soft landing. When Sutherland last Friday used the word "despicable" to describe Warner's behaviour it sounded like a tough stance, but in reality it was a shallow smokescreen for a light penalty handed down by an independent judge. Warner may be suspended until the first Test, but the question lingers: If you can't get sent home for punching a rival player in the head, what do you have to do? Rob a bank? Australia did not even have the courage to put Warner on a booze ban, or if they did they did not announce it. CA can be very secretive with penalties, as was the case when it fined a player a five-figure sum for an alleged dalliance with drugs after a Test against India last year, but decided to keep it secret rather than embarrass him (and isn't that partially what fines are for?) The public thought far differently of Warner's penalty than the judge who handed it down. In an online poll in a rival publication, more than three-quarters of the thousands surveyed felt Warner should have been sent home. It was never going to happen. Cricket is craving a strong, courageous voice such as hockey's Ric Charlesworth or the AFL's Andrew Demetriou, and would also do well to study bold sporting disciplinarians such as tennis great Pat Rafter. Rafter is so big on discipline that as team captain this year he banned Bernard Tomic from a Davis Cup tie simply because of a bad attitude. If it meant losing, he was happy to wear it. Discipline comes first with him. In Australian cricket it ranks a distant second to whether or not your talents might be needed. There are no Pat Rafters in Australian cricket. Exceptional coach Bob Simpson, who left the Australia post in the mid-1990s, at times had this sort of steel, as did former hard-nosed chief executive Malcolm Speed, who has been gone for over a decade. It's been a pretty soft old ride since. You only have to read the list of offences for the four players sacked in India - bulging skinfolds, backchat and not attending team meetings - to accept cricket's standards are beneath every other major sport in Australia despite the fact its top players are the best paid. Very sadly, I sense from people I speak to in everyday life this cricket team is Australia's least popular for at least 30 years or more. For many years, I have greatly admired stand-in 50-over captain George Bailey for being an underrated player, a bright thoughtful captain and a decent bloke. But he deserves to be under serious scrutiny for his stance on the Warner issue. No matter whose version of events you believe, one fact is beyond dispute: An Australian player punched an English rival. For Bailey to describe this as "very minor" shows how far his radar is askew from the masses of Australian people he is representing. Whoever is the man to change Australia's crumbling culture, it won't be Bailey. A tougher man rather than a soft apologist is needed at the helm. The only person to come out of this with any honour is Shane Watson, for demanding team management explain why he was sacked and humiliated for not filling out his homework while Australia tried to cover up Warner's indiscretions. Totally fair point. The cheek of Australia to think they could name and shame in India yet launch a cover-up in England. That's the trouble with drawing lines in the sand. Eventually a king tide of controversy comes up and washes everything away and no one is sure where the lines were in the first place.