Ponting accuses England of gamesmanship

[wfdu_ben91]

Of course they needed to be told. When the minimum overs were down to 2.5 they might have thought they'd saved the game when it fact Australia were bowling more than the minimum.

And how was that going to change the way they were batting?

 

[G.I.Joe]

And how was that going to change the way they were batting?

This man makes sense.

 

[marc71178]

You could just ask the umpire if it was a concern. As someone above said though, that wouldn't make them aware of the match situation itself regarding whether they saved the match or not.

To be honest, I doubt either batsman would've even thought of it in the heat of the battle, they'd have been concentrating all their efforts on staying in.

 

[vic_orthdox]

As I said in the other thread, I think that most teams would have done it. But sending out the physio and 12th man twice in two overs just smacked of amateurism; most teams wouldn't have gotten themselves in that situation in the first place. They should have been doing it more subtley throughout the session to make sure that it never got close to Australia getting extra overs in.

 

[pasag]

This whole issue is such a media beat-up and a pretty embarrassing one at that. Started by prodding journos and mainted by them throughout the week trying to keep the issue going for as long as possible. 'The chapter adds more tension before Thursday's second Test at Lord's' in a recent article says it all for mine. It's so boring and see through.

 

[vic_orthdox]

This whole issue is such a media beat-up and a pretty embarrassing one at that. Started by prodding journos and mainted by them throughout the week trying to keep the issue going for as long as possible. 'The chapter adds more tension before Thursday's second Test at Lord's' in a recent article says it all for mine. It's so boring and see through.

Indeed.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yep, media should have focused more on Ponting's enraged chimp impression, more of a story there. Although the Fletcher-Ponting tiff is doing well for the hype machine.

 

[four_or_six]

Fletcher wrote in the Guardian about Ponting putting pressure on the umpires at Sophia Gardens and their sledging. "If any side in the world doesn't play within the spirit of the game it's Ponting's Australians, yet here he is sitting in judgment on England because he's frustrated that his bowlers failed to complete the job," he said. "Ponting getting frustrated - does that remind you of anything?"

"We are good mates, Duncan and I," Ponting said wryly at Lord's. "I'm not one little bit worried at all about what Duncan has had to say. He is an irrelevant person in my world and probably in the cricketing world right at the moment."

Handbags.

 

[Streetwise]

KP will be happy when this story dies, with the retirement of Flintosser it will make him the only newsworthy south african...sorry Englishman in the team.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

And how was that going to change the way they were batting?

If they thought they'd saved the game they would have mentally relaxed and possibly have lost concentration (which incidently is something that seems to happen to you before each post you make).

 

[zaremba]

Matthew Syed writing in the Times today:

This is a man who has turned slow play into an art form, regularly failing to get his bowlers through their overs quickly enough. Australia have been fined 33 times for slow play since 1995: 20 of them under Ponting's captaincy and eight times since the start of 2008. They were fined in four Tests and two one-day internationals in 2008 and have infringed twice more in 2009, most recently in the World Twenty20 defeat by Sri Lanka last month.

This is a man who has time-wasted in previous Ashes contests, including on the fourth day of the third Test at Old Trafford in 2005, when Australia spent an inordinate amount of time setting and resetting the field as the clock ticked away. Steve Bucknor, the umpire, was so concerned that he started to tap his watch and, when Ponting persisted with his tactics, warned the Australia captain.

This is a man whose attempts to put pressure on umpires has become so sustained, insistent and aggressive that it has started to cause concern at the highest levels of the game. Minutes before the end of the Test on Sunday, Ponting was at it again, almost going nose to nose with Aleem Dar to appeal for a catch that missed Paul Collingwood's bat by the width of Ayers Rock.

This is a man who regularly refuses to walk when the ball has snicked his own bat; who has appealed for catches that didn't carry (is it any wonder Andrew Flintoff pointedly stayed at the crease when Ponting took a catch low down in the second innings in Cardiff?); who perceives wrongdoing in just about everything except for his own actions.

This is a man who has been fined six times for breaches of the ICC Code of Conduct (in addition to the fines for time-wasting), not to mention all those occasions when he has behaved dubiously and not been charged; who made an offensive gesture after being given out against India in Sharjah in 2003; who leads the national team that invented sledging, perhaps the most ghastly and immoral tactic in the modern game.

Spirit of cricket, Ricky? Spirit of cricket? Why not listen to your own countrymen, who have made their opinions plain on this very issue. A poll for Sydney's Daily Telegraph in January 2008 showed that an extraordinary 82 per cent of Australians believed that Ponting was not a great ambassador for his country and 79 per cent felt the national team did not play within “the spirit of cricket”. Seen in this context, Ponting's finger-pointing is almost beyond parody.

 

[jondavluc]

 

[social]

Matthew Syed writing in the Times today:

Embarassingly bad article - failed to mention that Oz has been one of the least charged teams in recent history (no one likes that one, btw) and is a clear example of a journo that has a bitch session saved on his computer and was just waiting for the opportunity to press "send"

 

[zaremba]

Yeah sorry I promised myself I wouldn't say any more but then I saw the article and couldn't resist posting an extract. Bad zaremba!

What struck me was the fact, which I hadn't remembered, that Ricky got warned for time-wasting at OT in 2005.

 

[zaremba]

Embarassingly bad article - failed to mention that Oz has been one of the least charged teams in recent history (no one likes that one, btw) and is a clear example of a journo that has a bitch session saved on his computer and was just waiting for the opportunity to press "send"

You should read the rest of it - I edited out some of the cheaper anti-Crim shots. But, as I've just mentioned, the fact that Ricky got warned at OT in 2005 for timewasting is a terrific parallel that is worth pointing out.

Anyhow apologies again for continuing to breathe life into the rancid corpse of this discussion. It keeps my mind off the ticking clock (just over 15 hours before play starts at Lord's )

 

[jondavluc]

Yeah sorry I promised myself I wouldn't say any more but then I saw the article and couldn't resist posting an extract. Bad zaremba!

What struck me was the fact, which I hadn't remembered, that Ricky got warned for time-wasting at OT in 2005.

No problems mate nothing against you just that article was just awful.The journo should be fired

 

[social]

You should read the rest of it - I edited out some of the cheaper anti-Crim shots. But, as I've just mentioned, the fact that Ricky got warned at OT in 2005 for timewasting is a terrific parallel that is worth pointing out.

Anyhow apologies again for continuing to breathe life into the rancid corpse of this discussion. It keeps my mind off the ticking clock (just over 15 hours before play starts at Lord's )

Read the whole article this morning and it's nothing more than a continuation of the media beat-up surrounding this issue

As I said about 48 hous ago - let's move on because potentially we have another great series on our hands

Anyway, heading to London in about an hour, have arranged pre-match drinks and fully intend to be totally inebriated for the next few days!

 

[GIMH]

Enjoy yourself social. Shame you won't be posting during the match, it will certainly mean I won't be as wound up

 

[Streetwise]

This is little britian isnt it,

Never before has so few (just one) done so little to ruffle so many feathers,

 

[vic_orthdox]

Was Old Trafford the draw or the second game that England won?