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

[Burgey]

TOTAB should come back and get all this sorted out.

 

[Slippaah]

In recent years Associate cricketers have been banned for lengthy periods ( career ending in some cases ) after admitting to ‘ failing to report being approached by a bookmaker’. No admission of cheating in an international match but banned by ICC from the game for 24 months or more. What ICC sanctions will flow when One of the Big Three admits actual cheating .

 

[SeamUp]

All the Western Australians standing up for their kid brother Bancroft.

Brad Hogg says he has known him since he was 13 and this is out of character lol

 

[SeamUp]

James Sutherland will address the media in 4 hours time

 

[Gnske]

James Sutherland will address the media in 4 hours time

Oh wow I can't wait for that, everyone loves hearing from James Sutherland and what he was to say.

 

[Larwood's_boots]

In recent years Associate cricketers have been banned for lengthy periods ( career ending in some cases ) after admitting to ‘ failing to report being approached by a bookmaker’. No admission of cheating in an international match but banned by ICC from the game for 24 months or more. What ICC sanctions will flow when One of the Big Three admits actual cheating .

Remember that Smith has history with India (brain fade ), who are by far the most powerful of the big three. Could see them using their ICC clout to come down hard on this as retribution.

 

[SeamUp]

Oh wow I can't wait for that, everyone loves hearing from James Sutherland and what he was to say.

He truly loves these moments.
Spot-fixing
Pregnancy issue
Kohli-gate
Player-dispute

 

[Larwood's_boots]

Remember that Smith has history with India (brain fade ), who are by far the most powerful of the big three. Could see them using their ICC clout to come down hard on this.

And hopefully Cricket Australia does something too, possibly even longer than what the ICC doles out.

 

[Bahseph]

I'm pretty certain that every team tries to alter the state of the ball. I mean we still have umpires telling teams not to throw the ball to the keeper on the bounce. But this was the most blatant bit of ball tampering I've ever seen.

And I've seen Faf rub a ball on his pants zip. Leave alone the mint saga. I get the feeling that Smith is protecting Lehmann. My question to the Aus posters is why?? Genuinely intrigued.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

I'm pretty certain that every team tries to alter the state of the ball. I mean we still have umpires telling teams not to throw the ball to the keeper on the bounce. But this was the most blatant bit of ball tampering I've ever seen.

And I've seen Faf rub a ball on his pants zip. Leave alone the mint saga. I get the feeling that Smith is protecting Lehmann. My question to the Aus posters is why?? Genuinely intrigued.

Strange isn't it. Seeing as Boof only has until the world cup and he's gone anyway. And everyman and his dog knows he is involved from the footage. You would have thought Boof would have been the man to fall on his sword.

 

[Top_Cat]

Damage control, I guess? Probably better for the Aussie team’s image to the rest of the cricketing world that this be perceived as a one-off act of wicket desperation by rambunctious players than a systematic decision made with the involvement of the coach to influence a live Test. Any whiff of the latter immediately makes questionable any claim it’s a one-off and you can bet any oppo video analysis lads worth their salt will be scouring footage of the Aussies today.

 

[stephen]

I'm inclined to believe that this is a first offense is that the Aussies were so blatant about it and so bad at hiding it.

After the controversies of the first two tests and the hostility and opposition that they've faced in the media combined with the overturning of the Rabada ban I can definitely see them having become desperate and tried something stupid like this.

But cheating is cheating. No excuses. Smith should lose his captaincy over it. Paine can captain. Bancroft should cop a one match ban over it.

It's a bad look for the game. And it's terrible for Australian cricket.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Damage control, I guess? Probably better for the Aussie team’s image to the rest of the cricketing world that this be perceived as a one-off act of wicket desperation by rambunctious players than a systematic decision made with the involvement of the coach to influence a live Test. Any whiff of the latter immediately makes questionable any claim it’s a one-off and you can bet any oppo video analysis lads worth their salt will be scouring footage of the Aussies today.

There is already footage going around Twitter of Bancroft putting sugar in his pockets before play in the ashes. The TV companies will be scouring their archives now. If they can nail Smith on the "this was the first time we did it, honest" he's in even more trouble.

 

[Gnske]

Damage control, I guess? Probably better for the Aussie team’s image to the rest of the cricketing world that this be perceived as a one-off act of wicket desperation by rambunctious players than a systematic decision made with the involvement of the coach to influence a live Test. Any whiff of the latter immediately makes questionable any claim it’s a one-off and you can bet any oppo video analysis lads worth their salt will be scouring footage of the Aussies today.

The claim that it's the first time smells iffy, you're never going to admit when you're caught that you've done it before, let alone cite the other examples you got away with it.

Question for you all though. Faf obviously got to keep his captaincy after his thing (even though he was a stand-in for the Aus series in 2016) and there are folks saying someone has to take the bullet for this. Who takes the bullet/s and to what degree? Smith seems irreplaceable as a captain given Warner's reputation and it sounds like he was equally as complicit. Bancroft is just a soldier in a greater plot and will get his rewards, and Boof has been utterly protected so it seems unlikely anything is going to happen to him over this.

Shall this be another event that gets covered by the sands of time?

 

[LegionOfBrad]

The claim that it's the first time smells iffy, you're never going to admit when you're caught that you've done it before, let alone cite the other examples you got away with it.

Question for you all though. Faf obviously got to keep his captaincy after his thing (even though he was a stand-in for the Aus series in 2016) and there are folks saying someone has to take the bullet for this. Who takes the bullet/s and to what degree? Smith seems irreplaceable as a captain given Warner's reputation and it sounds like he was equally as complicit. Bancroft is just a soldier in a greater plot and will get his rewards, and Boof has been utterly protected so it seems unlikely anything is going to happen to him over this.

Shall this be another event that gets covered by the sands of time?

Faf (probably very sensibly) didn't walk into a press conference and admit it was a grand conspiracy.

There was also the fact they got caught lieing to the umpires after they were spotted. The whole thing just looks worse.

 

[Bahseph]

It's been an incident amplified by all the 'hard but fair' talk. I'm pretty sure most of the cricketing world were just waiting to nail the Aussies about something.

On the Faf issue Gnske, he was clearly trying to use the mint to alter the ball,but the nature of the method lent itself to some level of playing oblivious on his part. To my knowledge mints aren't banned? Bancroft and Smith openly admitted to what they did. I don't think Smith should lose his captaincy, but the calls aren't unwarranted and if he did I'd understand why.

 

[Top_Cat]

Just to be clear, I absolutely do not believe this was the first time. Smith’s already odds against hanging onto the skippership, any suggestion of earlier work and he’s gone, surely.

Bancroft’s career is DOA, tbh. He’s no naive young bloke, knew what he was doing was wrong. He’ll lose the 4th Test at least. Whatever else happens, I think it’s too early to say but I also don’t believe for a second that the quicks weren’t involved. No fast bowler would stay schtumm at the batters faffing about, doing things to the ball without their input. As far as I’m concerned, Lyon’s involved too. It ****ing sucks, casts doubt on absolutely every great reverse spell Starc’s delivered in the past year or so.

There’s no way to brush this under the carpet, CA simply has to act. Faf’s offense was both arguable and not indicative of a wider group working together to fool the officials. This is almost Machiavellian. Smith’s gawn.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Just to be clear, I absolutely do not believe this was the first time. Smith’s already odds against hanging onto the skippership, any suggestion of earlier work and he’s gone, surely.

Bancroft’s career is DOA, tbh. He’s no naive young bloke, knew what he was doing was wrong. He’ll lose the 4th Test at least. Whatever else happens, I think it’s too early to say but I also don’t believe for a second that the quicks weren’t involved. No fast bowler would stay schtumm at the batters faffing about, doing things to the ball without their input. As far as I’m concerned, Lyon’s involved too. It ****ing sucks, casts doubt on absolutely every great reverse spell Starc’s delivered in the past year or so.

There’s no way to brush this under the carpet, CA simply has to act. Faf’s offense was both arguable and not indicative of a wider group working together to fool the officials. This is almost Machiavellian. Smith’s gawn.

Fyi Brettig has named the "Leadership group" as Smith, Warner, Lyon, Haze and Starc.

 

[vicleggie]

Great to see the ugly underbelly of Australian cricket culture that I've always known exists, exposed.

The amount of times I heard the Indians called "cheating ____s" growing up..

 

[flibbertyjibber]

James Sutherland will address the media in 4 hours time

Him sweeping it under the carpet you mean.