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

[Prince EWS]

I don't think you'll find many people here who disagree. Certainly that's my view.

Yeah I totally agree. If he didn't know - which I kind of suspect - then it's a worse indictment on his captaincy than if he did.

And then he made it 1000x worse with the press conference. Cancerous Australian cricket culture is only part of the reason there was a massive over-reaction.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Khawaja is back in the shield runs and just captained Qld to a shield win, what's stopping CA from bringing him back to open with Warner (which has always been his best position In tests, bite me).

Gives us a solid captain and gives pucovski time to get his injury **** figured out and see where his future lies instead of rushing him back in because our alternate opener is Harris. Seems like a win win to me. Could even lead to pucovski getting a chance to settle into test cricket down the order at 5/6 with green.

1.Khawaja (C)
2.Warner
3.Marnus
4.smith
5.green 5
6.Head/Pucovski
7.Carey/Inglis +
8.Cummins 3
9.Starc 1
10.Lyon 4
11.Haze 2
Looks extremely strong on paper. Doubt it actually cause Langer has a hate boner for Khawaja but a man can dream.

Looks about what I'd go with. Similar to Khawaja though my impossible dream would be Maxwell to slot in at 6. Also not convinced at all that Starc deserves the Test spot.

 

[Prince EWS]

Looks about what I'd go with. Similar to Khawaja though my impossible dream would be Maxwell to slot in at 6. Also not convinced at all that Starc deserves the Test spot.

Yeah Khawaja opening and Maxwell at six has been a bit of a CW meme dream for a while. Definitely not going to happen but I think it's the strongest batting lineup, and I've only become more convinced with time.

 

[GIMH]

Tbh I don't buy that Smith, Warner and Bancroft were banned. I just reckon they were...

D R O P P E D
R
O
P
P
E
D

 

[Prince EWS]

Tbh I don't buy that Smith, Warner and Bancroft were banned. I just reckon they were...

D R O P P E D
R
O
P
P
E
D

What is a drop if not a temporary ban?

They were all dropped non-performance-related reasons.

Dropped.

 

[Starfighter]

And then he made it 1000x worse with the press conference. Cancerous Australian cricket culture is only part of the reason there was a massive over-reaction.

I'd say cancerous Australian media culture really.

 

[Spikey]

Tbh I don't buy that Smith, Warner and Bancroft were banned. I just reckon they were...

D R O P P E D
R
O
P
P
E
D

So you're saying the ban claims are just a......

F R U A D
R
U
A
D

 

[GIMH]

Y E S
E
S

 

[Starfighter]

So you're saying the ban claims are just a......

F R U A D
R
U
A
D

What's a fruad?

 

[Magrat Garlick]

it's something escape goats commit

 

[Spikey]

mate i'm rusty. the death of joe burns is so long ago now, I've forgotten how to spell and do the meme

 

[social]

Probably a case of the other alternatives being questionable. Warner banned from captaincy, Marnus lacks seasoning, the other bats aren't secure in the team and there seems to be an unwritten rule about the captain being a batsman.

Just give it to Cummins

The 2 best captains we never had were Miller & Warne

Cummins will be an atg

 

[ParwazHaiJunoon]

Handover captaincy to Lyon.

The benefits of going bald

Want to appear more intelligent, influential, educated and honest? Lose your hair.

www.bbc.com

 

[Spikey]

Want to appear more intelligent, influential, educated and honest? Lose your hair.

i don't think anyone identifies any of these traits with nathan lyon

 

[morgieb]

Australia needs Head..............









or maybe Khawaja.

Sadly I can't see a path back for Usman.

Head would be a good choice if the **** could score some runs against decent opposition.

 

[Burgey]

Will be very interesting to see the Aussie trio's numbers pre and post Newlands

I would think Haze and cummins’ numbers are better now tbh

 

[honestbharani]

I would think Haze and cummins’ numbers are better now tbh

They are and they are both brilliant bowlers. Which makes it so much more surprising they had to go to these levels. I mean, people make fun of the 36 but I can think of many batting sides who wont have made much more on that day and with Haze and Cummins in that form.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Such an odd story over the past week.

Bancroft's initial comments were so vague and indecisive that they barely amounted to anything and could've easily amounted to the interviewer pushing their own views onto him than anything Bancroft believed.

But perhaps the lack of clarity from Bancroft were part of their power as they allowed various people and groups to project their own views on them to serve their own interests.

These have ranged from media groups hyping it up saying how the whole incident has been blown wide open to other journos calling for a major revaluation and investigation into ball tampering in general to the likes of Michael Clarke who seem to like to be passive-aggressive in their media career.

So while I think it's much ado about nothing, I think the impact within the Oz team could be pretty significant, especially with friction surrounding comments from Warner's manager about how there's more to be told to the story and may even do a tell-all book post-career. Couldn't think anything more likely to damage the fabric of the current team.

Also, I wonder whether the hyping up of this story is implicitly driven by unease within Oz cricket media and the like that Smith wants to return to captaincy? I suspect there's a feeling that going back to him is a mistake and regurgitating stories like this is a reminder of why that is so.

 

[Shri]

take a punt on cameron green ala graeme smith

looks composed and detached

don't make him bowl a lot

 

[honestbharani]

take a punt on cameron green ala graeme smith

looks composed and detached

don't make him bowl a lot

If he is the captain, he will get to decide.

And will just stand at gully all day and direct traffic.