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

Top_Cat

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Should have heard the sycophantic interview on Fox Sports News with the Adelaide Advertiser cricket writer Richard Earle. I'm sympathetic to the idea that Lehmann didn't know about the specific plan, but according to Earle there are nuns more likely to encourage ball tampering than Lehmann.
Underrated possibility is that Lehmann purposefully didn't know. Creating a rule-breaking culture and constantly pressuring people to pull questionable ****, all while technically maintaining your own plausible deniability, is Unethical Management 101.
Earle is a putz.

Somewhere between these two poles is more his MO, historically. As a player and skipper, was definitely of the opinion that the suits should just **** off and let the players do whatever it takes to win. He wasn't the moralist skipper who had lines for his players (oppo, different story), was totally about finding the right mix of blokes to win games. If that meant the most popular, uniting fella was the guy ring-leading the ball 'management', that was none of his concern. Neither was the amount or tone of sledging if it worked. Guys could participate or not in whatever was going if they wanted to. The W, all that matters.

Somewhere deep in his heart, he probably sincerely believes if the team had won the last two Tests, noone would really arc up about what happened here. On that he'd basically be right too, the coverage of the players and tactics whilst winning the Ashes and prior series' has mainly been positive. Sure there's been the occasional article bemoaning things, Sutherland has been criticised a bit for his silence on the matter. But, in general, the team's been given a free pass to do whatever they like on and off-field. Big issue last year was the pay stuff.

Is Lehman really racist or did he just say something that was racist. Because I don't think a racist would be so keen on picking Khawaja and Agar as much as Lehman does.
Complicated, product of his environment. Elizabeth is a scummy area full of the great-grandsons of English crooks. As long as you're the 'right' kind of black, you're alright.
 
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Midwinter

State Captain
Some of you overseas people may not be aware of how much Smith and Warner are the face of Australian cricket and are held up as role models for children, aspiring cricketers and the community in general,

Over the past summer it has been wall to wall Smith and Warner in advertising.

For them to have let down CA and the public in general in this way is the reason for the length of the suspension.
 

morgieb

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What did they actually lie about that was so bad though? They confessed to premeditated cheating, which is more than the South Africans have ever done.
Claimed it was tape, claimed it was a leadership team idea (evidence suggests it was Warner's idea). Probably some other stuff I missed.
 

SeamUp

International Coach
What did they actually lie about that was so bad though? They confessed to premeditated cheating, which is more than the South Africans have ever done.
Like this ?

Michael Atherton, 1994
In the "dirt in pocket" affair, then England captain Michael Atherton was accused of ball tampering during a Test match with South Africa at Lord's in 1994 after television cameras caught Atherton reaching into his pocket and then rubbing a substance on the ball. Atherton denied ball tampering, claiming that he had dirt in his pocket which he used to dry his hands. He was also accused of lying to the match referee. Atherton was summoned to the match referee and was fined £2,000 for failing to disclose the dirt to the match referee.[4]


England cricket team, 2005
Marcus Trescothick admitted in his autobiography, Coming Back to Me, that he used mints to shine the ball to produce more swing: "It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish. And through trial and error I finally settled on the type of spit for the task at hand. It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva which, when applied to the ball for cleaning purposes, enabled it to keep its shine for longer and therefore its swing." He found Murray Mints worked the best.[11]

The admission came 3 years after the conclusion of the 2005 Ashes series, in which England beat Australia 2–1.


James Anderson and Stuart Broad, 2010
In January 2010, England bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson were accused of ball tampering by rubbing the ball on the ground with their spikes in the third Test Match against South Africa.[22] Broad maintained that he was just being lazy, because it was 40 degrees Celsius in Cape Town that day.[22] Andy Flower said in his defence that "the scoreline suggested that there was obviously no ball tampering."[23] Nasser Hussain, who had captained Anderson, said: "Stuart Broad and James Anderson were wrong to behave in the manner they did and I've no doubt that if a player from another country did the same we'd have said they were cheating."[24] No charges were formally placed by South Africa even though they made the accusations at a press conference.[25]
 
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Gnske

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I can imagine Bancroft asking the question, I can just picture it.

"Sure I'll do it, wait David just one question. How do you actually tamper with a ball?"

Then Warner says something like don't worry they'll never see you unless they all have OLEDs at home.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
OK, it might all be worth it if Warner does an ad about HD TV and being able to see everything on the ground and includes a ball tampering gag.
 

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