Does the punishment fit the crime? Do two wrongs make a right? Can any sympathy be felt for Treadwell Gibbons?

Those were the questions ringing in my head when the news settled that Gibbons, Bermuda sport’s enfant terrible, had been banned from football for five years for what can be described only as incomprehensible behaviour during the FA Cup Final at the National Sports Centre on April 13.

In due course, the governing body will present justification for such a punishment — or at least we hope so — but, excessively harsh or not, the overriding feeling is that Gibbons was a long-term suspension waiting to happen.

The one big surprise is that, after the decision taken by the Bermuda Football Association’s independent disciplinary panel, he does not own the dubious distinction of being banned from both national sports at the same time. But more on that later. So, five years? Really?

A source close to the revelation of the BFA decision believes that the governing body came down too hard on the Dandy Town goalkeeper. After all, “he just pushed” Jason Davis, the North Village defender, who had become involved in an altercation with Zaire Burchall. But whether it was a push, a punch, a b****-slap, or whatever you want to call it, what explanation could there be for travelling the 70 or so yards to get virtually to the opposition’s penalty area from his own goal?

Surely, for every ten steps that Gibbons took, there had to be a guardian angel on his shoulder saying, “Are you sure you wanna take that next step, mate? This may not end so well for you.”

It can clearly be established now that Gibbons and guardian angels do not dine out together.

So he gets involved, turns what was merely a case of “handbags” into a full-scale commotion and does so on the BFA’s signature day — the FA Cup Final.

Remember that this was a rescheduled final because inclement weather ruined the previous Sunday, the fleeting presence of lightning giving the BFA all the ammunition that it needed to postpone on what definitely would not have been a money-making day.

Long before the scheduled 4pm kick-off, the BFA was left with egg on its face because the National Sports Centre was bathed in sunshine and there was nary a cloud in the sky. A week later, egg of a different sort would stain the reputation of the winter national sport and, now, the governing body has hit back.

Rightly or wrongly, in terms of the length of ban — and my view initially, without considering Gibbons’s previous, was that he should be done for six to ten matches — the BFA has acted. And that is a damn sight better than what took place the previous summer, when the same individual cast a nasty blemish on the biggest event that Bermuda hosts.

Let me repeat that: the biggest event that Bermuda hosts, sport or no sport!

Cup Match is an institution, a way of life, two days of celebration, a time to be marked down in the calendar years in advance. It is also a cricket match — and that, unfortunately, is where it begins to turn pear-shaped.

What April 13 has done in hindsight is remove the benefit of doubt afforded to Gibbons when he protested that he was not going to hit a Somerset player, or players, when he was waving his bat menacingly in the wake of refusing to leave the field after being given out on the second day.

Thankfully, he was restrained and ultimately departed the pitch at Wellington Oval — more than five minutes after he was given out.

A batsman is meant to leave instantly once he hears the “death rattle” or sees the dreaded finger. Whether he believes the umpire’s judgment is correct or not is irrelevant.

Five thousand miles away in London, I was horrified by what I was witnessing via live streaming, more so because the commentators of the day appeared ill-equipped to deal with breaking news in the appropriate manner — the drawback, perhaps, in having former star players in a booth without a seasoned media professional.

That Craig Cannonier, the Premier, had appeared for a guest stint in the moments before Gibbons was given out, and then adopted a politically correct stance as controversy erupted, added embarrassingly to the sense that the term “rudderless ship” was not restricted to the pitiful challenge that St George’s Cricket Club put up over the two days.

What followed were days of inaction from host club St George’s, as they retreated into siege mentality mode, before the laughable two-year suspended sentence from Cup Match was “enforced”. Which means that Gibbons is free to bring his unique brand of sportsmanship to Somerset Cricket Club and into the homes of tens of thousands here and abroad when the midsummer classic is played on July 31 and August 1.

I cringe at the thought. But also hiding behind their living-room settees, apart from St George’s, should be Cleveland County, Gibbons’s league club, and the Bermuda Cricket Board.

One presented Gibbons in an open-air press conference, with a church minister in tow to boot, to offer a belated “heartfelt” apology to the Bermuda public. I say belated because it came ten days after Cup Match, by which time opinions had long been formed and social media had spiralled out of control.

The other named Gibbons, and then hastily unnamed him citing administrative error, in a provisional Bermuda training squad for the World Twenty20 qualifying tournament before stating that he will be subjected to anger management counselling.

How foolish have they all been made to look right about now.

Heavy-handedly or not, football has succeeded where cricket has failed. And miserably so.