Baggy Green ball tampering: Bancroft, Smith and the Aussie "Leadership Group"

[Second Spitter]

This whole thing is glorious, watching this odious team disintegrate. Proof there is a god.

Problem is, Test cricket is going to be biggest loser out of this fiasco.

 

[Stapel]

My two cents (not that many people care about my two cents....) :

I've been a bits & pieces lonely cricket watcher between 1993 and 1998 (or whenever it exactly was when the BBC was stripped of TV rights). Hardly any friends to discuss cricket with. And no online communities yet.

Since the 2005 Ashes series, I was dragged back in. And I've watched an awful lot of cricket since. As a neutral fan, I can pick my favourites. Yet, I have never ever been able to support either Pakistan or Australia. As different as their cultures are, they do, imho, share one thing: their collective 'line' between what is acceptable and what is not, is far beyond where it should be, according to my personal ideas. Obviously, any (cricket) nation has its individual idiots, cheaters, and bullies. Yet, there is this firmly planted idea in my head, there is some collective aresholeness in some cultures. Perphaps I'm biased. Should I really care that much?

In my own cricket league (crappy village level), I encounter the same. Nothing is wrong with any individual person. Yet, when there are 3 or 4 Aussies (or Pakis) in the opponent team, the admosphere starts getting ugly.

IMHO, Smith & co didn't cross the line for the first time. Perhaps they now managed to cross their own horrendously drawn line. But their own line always has been so ridiculous, that I can't even say it's good they have one in the first place.

IMHO, what happened this week, is nothing but the logical result of an ongoing culture of arseholeness.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Problem is, Test cricket is going to be biggest loser out of this fiasco.

I've never seen so much interest in test cricket! It made headline news on the BBC! Journalists are having to learn the art of reverse swing.

Unless you mean we'll all miss Smith's twitchy crab batting?

 

[Second Spitter]

I've never seen so much interest in test cricket! It made headline news on the BBC! Journalists are having to learn the art of reverse swing.

Unless you mean we'll all miss Smith's twitchy crab batting?

1. Australian crowds will stay away in droves next summer.
2. T20 will be seen as a game that is "beyond" ball-tampering (rightly or wrongly)
3. Warner will become a full-time T20 merc, paving the way for other players to follow his example.
4. TV ratings and revenues will fall. (The Nine network is reportedly finding it uneconomical to cover Test cricket).
5. Sponsors will stay away...etc etc

 

[S.Kennedy]

1. Australian crowds will stay away in droves next summer.
2. T20 will be seen as game that is "beyond" ball-tampering (rightly or wrongly)
3. Warner will become a full-time T20 merc, paving the way for other players to follow his example.
4. TV ratings and revenues will fall. (The Nine network is reportedly finding it uneconomical to cover Test cricket).
5. Sponsors will stay away...etc etc

Yes, but all this has to compete with the sheer undiluted joy of watching the Australians disintegrate.

 

[social]

This whole thing is glorious, watching this odious team disintegrate. Proof there is a god.

Anyone who sledges, tampers with the ball and tries to fight a member of the opposition in the sheds is a bona fide arsehole

But enough about Jimmy Anderson

 

[stephen]

1. Australian crowds will stay away in droves next summer.
2. T20 will be seen as a game that is "beyond" ball-tampering (rightly or wrongly)
3. Warner will become a full-time T20 merc, paving the way for other players to follow his example.
4. TV ratings and revenues will fall. (The Nine network is reportedly finding it uneconomical to cover Test cricket).
5. Sponsors will stay away...etc etc

The parenthesis for #4 is complete crap. The tests basically give them 20 days of the year where people leave their tv on 9 all day, which apart from the revenue also gives them advertising for all their crap that they shovel out in the new year.

 

[OverratedSanity]

2 is rubbish too. T20 leagues have a scandal every month or so.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Anyone who sledges, tampers with the ball and tries to fight a member of the opposition in the sheds is a bona fide arsehole

But enough about Jimmy Anderson

A more respectable cricketer can not be found than Jimmy Anderson.

 

[jimmy101]

This kind of reminds me of the Tiger Woods situation a few years ago. Everyone was very quick to crucify him & rant about it. Something I didn't expect was how harshly the team is being spoken of, even by average (casual cricket fan wankers) Australians. Usually Aussie are very quick to defend their sports starts, especially loudmouth idiots such as Warner, but for some reason those same fans (and news outlets) have been treating it as if they murdered someone.

Pretty amusing overall. The reactions to it especially.

 

[Second Spitter]

The parenthesis for #4 is complete crap. The tests basically give them 20 days of the year where people leave their tv on 9 all day, which apart from the revenue also gives them advertising for all their crap that they shovel out in the new year.

Just quoting UBS analysts.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/com...ket-contract-by-analysts-20170425-gvruzl.html

 

[S.Kennedy]

Australia's ''Joe Public'' and the non-Australian cricketing nerds here are in an alliance against the Australian cricketing nerds here. There is nothing worse an Englishman, Proteas, Indian or a ***** can say than what the Australian mainstream press are already saying as we speak. He is being crucified.

 

[GotSpin]

This whole thing is glorious, watching this odious team disintegrate. Proof there is a god.

Don't you have some county cricket to discuss

 

[Second Spitter]

Don't you have some county cricket to discuss

Which Blast team will Warner sign for?

 

[S.Kennedy]

Don't you have some county cricket to discuss

April 13th.

This is a nice appetizer.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Which Blast team will Warner sign for?

He did actually play for us once for about four games,



About the only photo I can find.

 

[Second Spitter]

You must be so proud.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I still can't believe that they got caught on camera trying to tamper, then Bancroft mouthed to a teammate "They saw me" which was also caught on camera, and Lehmann walkie talkied Handscomb to go on the field and talk to Bancroft which was also caught on camera and Bancroft shoved it down his pants, again caught on camera.

It'd have been hilarious if they'd still denied everything. I'm almost sad they didn't.

 

[S.Kennedy]

You must be so proud.

There is something, and it embarrasses me to say this, a bit Durham-esque about Warner considering Ben Stokes and we also have Jack Burnham, a promising England age group batsman, who is currently suspended for a year for being on drugs.

Candice would really blend in with the Newcastle night life.

 

[Second Spitter]

I still can't believe that they got caught on camera trying to tamper, then Bancroft mouthed to a teammate "They saw me" which was also caught on camera, and Lehmann walkie talkied Handscomb to go on the field and talk to Bancroft which was also caught on camera and Handscomb shoved it down his pants, again caught on camera.

It'd have been hilarious if they'd still denied everything. I'm almost sad they didn't.

Handscomb should have just told him get off the field. Then they surely would have denied everything.