Darren Lehmann said Steve Smith and David Warner were not bad people

Tears welling in his eyes, head cricket coach Darren Lehmann has pledged that the Australian team will change and so will he. Only hours before he sat down behind a desk in the basement of the Intercontinental Hotel here in South Africa, he had seen off Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft in emotional goodbyes as they headed for Tambo international airport and beyond, not to return to this exclusive touring party for a long time. The Australian head coach has overseen a team with a hard and uncomprising edge that has been pilloried around the cricket world and at home, even before their crash last Saturday to an all-time low. On Wednesday, there was softness as Lehmann stressed that the "human side" of the ball-tampering controversy needed to be understood, pleading for the culprits to be given a second chance. Make no mistake, this is rock bottom for the Australian team. The crying shame of it all is that it has taken such a terrible episode, tarnishing careers and changing lives, for Lehmann and what is left of the side to look themselves in the mirror. The coach has endorsed an attitude of stretching the limits of what is considered acceptable, content to win ugly if that is what it takes. Headbutting "the line", as they liked to say. It was an approach that was the poisonous foundation for what took place at Newlands. That is all over. Winning, suddenly, isn't all that matters. They are putting a line through the line. "I need to change," Lehmann said.