The media were so quick to cast the first stone and they lined up in droves on Thursday night as Steve Smith, former Australian captain, stepped off the plane from Cape Town to Sydney and went straight into a press conference.

Far from the vague presser he gave when the news broke the Australia Test team were caught ball tampering, the media – and the Australian public – were met with something very different.

A broken man, truly sorry for his actions, who completely understood the gravity of what he did.

For almost a week now, Smith and his co-conspirators have read about how Australia as a nation is disappointed and angry at their actions.

But what became clear on Thursday night was just how much Smith was affected by how his own family had taken the news.

Breaking down when mentioning how his dad reacted to this scandal was not a publicity stunt, it wasn’t put on to garner sympathy.

It was the real reaction from a son who deeply disappointed his father and knows he has to deal with that, on top of disappointing a nation of cricket fans.

To all those parents saying they are consoling their children, or that their son is deeply disappointed in Smith’s actions, that’s fine.

But rather than pointing out the scandal to them, perhaps focus on a man in the public eye who took responsibility for his actions and wasn’t afraid to show his emotions on live television.

He was a man in a leadership position and even though he wasn’t named as the instigator, he took full responsibility of the actions of his team.

There’s far more to learn from this than what there was from the cheating.

All players received harsh penalties, probably the harshest in cricketing history for this particular offence.

Darren Lehmann resigned from his position as coach of the Australian team because of the backlash he and his family had received over the past week.

These players have suffered enough, they have shown remorse and issued their apologies and now it’s time to start forgiving them.