***Official*** Australia in South Africa 2018

[harsh.ag]

Just take responsibility with those oodles of manhood you claim to have for once.

 

[Top_Cat]

I mean, I know openers are meant to the take the shine not the cover off the ball but usually not whilst fielding.

 

[OverratedSanity]

tbh it would be pretty **** if bancroft, a newbie, copped it instead of the ones who told him to do whatever

That's why Faf is the true man's man. Did the dirty work himself and copped the ban instead of delegating it to on of his cronies.

 

[StephenZA]

tbh it would be pretty **** if bancroft, a newbie, copped it instead of the ones who told him to do whatever

Very much so.... I am truly interested to see how the Aus team and management treat this, accept you got caught cheating and then lying, in a pretty bad way... or just deny and go all defensive.

The off field shite has been distracting..... I'm still enjoying the cricket though, but that could be because my team is on top.

 

[anil1405]

And apparently Aussies refusing to speak to the media after the days play.

 

[Spark]

Very much so.... I am truly interested to see how the Aus team and management treat this, accept you got caught cheating and then lying, in a pretty bad way... or just deny and go all defensive.

The off field shite has been distracting..... I'm still enjoying the cricket though, but that could be because my team is on top.

i would be extremely angry if management tried to pin it on bancroft. this is like 1% on him and 99% on a combo of smith and lehmann, they should be doing the explaining here

 

[Top_Cat]

i would be extremely angry if management tried to pin it on bancroft. this is like 1% on him and 99% on a combo of smith and lehmann, they should be doing the explaining here

It would also be an outright, if not provable, lie. That would be the worst part, tbh.

 

[Top_Cat]

Either way, you’re right, it should be one or both of them fronting the media eventually.

 

[R!TTER]

Suddenly I'm reminded of Kohli's press conference at the end of day 3 (4?) & the allegations that were never investigated. The review success rate though did drop like a rock after that, for such a good batter Smith sure isn't inspiring leader IMO & Darren's just a top level ****

 

[Daemon]

i would be extremely angry if management tried to pin it on bancroft. this is like 1% on him and 99% on a combo of smith and lehmann, they should be doing the explaining here

Yep. Lehmann even had Handscomb run out and get Bancroft to hide it. There is no way Bancroft should take the fall for this. Would be utterly disgraceful.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Not to fuel the controversy any further but this footage of the umpires and Bancroft looks pretty bad. Someone's got to be banned.

 

[SeamUp]

Tristan Holme
‏@tristanholme
Bancroft confirms he used yellow tape to collect rough granules from the pitch to try and change the condition of the ball. Smith admits this was a team tactic #SAvAUS

 

[Spark]

yeah so smith probably needs to cop some points for that.

 

[SeamUp]

Yup. They had no other choice than to do this and they certainly weren't going to hang newbie Bancroft to dry. If they did, I would have been pissed off for him!

Rob Houwing
‏@RobHouwing
'Our integrity has come into question and rightfully so' ... Steve Smith. 'Poor choice, we deeply regret it.'

 

[Spark]

Yup. They had no other choice than to do this and they certainly weren't going to hang newbie Bancroft to dry. If they did, I would have been pissed off for him!

Rob Houwing
‏@RobHouwing
'Our integrity has come into question and rightfully so' ... Steve Smith. 'Poor choice, we deeply regret it.'

i suspect that this was actually one of the bowler's ideas. but he's capt, he has to wear it.

 

[Raghav]

Did Temba genuinely earned his place for this test or creep-ed in due to Black selection policy of SA cricket team?

 

[Bijed]

It may be the case already, but if not I feel ball tampering is something that the captain should always be deemed to be responsible for and hence face the punishment. 99.9% of the time it'll have been done at their behest and whilst of course you never want any of the players to get banned, you really don't want your captain getting banned, which should make coaches less likely to pressure people into doing it and the captain is far less likely to tell someone to do it if they know they'll definitely have to take the rap for it if it gets discovered.

 

[StephenZA]

The look on Smiths face in the press conference says it all.... he is not having a good tour as a batsman or captain, is a big understatement.

You don't ever want to be in a position where the media is asking, are you going to step down as captain, and it may actually be a legitimate question.

 

[Spark]

honestly the most interesting thing is what CA does

 

[StephenZA]

The worst part is he states that the 'team' leadership knew but not the coach.... that is clearly a lie, looking at the footage.