*Official* Second Test (Lord's, London) 28 June–2 July

[Spark]

Ironically this whole incident might have actually brought a whole bunch of those people back onside with the team.

 

[Daemon]

Cummins might be an exception tbh. There's a section of Australian media which haaaates him and would happily throw him under the bus at first opportunity. Otherwise this is obviously true.

And it’s true for every team.

India has people that hate Kohli for being too woke and promoting vegetaria- ok that’s probably fair tbf

 

[Spark]

And it’s true for every team.

India has people that hate Kohli for being too woke and promoting vegetaria- ok that’s probably fair tbf

This is different though. Sky News was basically running a daily hate campaign against him every night a few months ago.

EDIT: Different in the Australian context that is. Can't speak to what it's like in India though that doesn't sound out of the ordinary based on what I know for sure.

 

[Spark]

Also Shady why did you delete that post, it's 100% true

 

[morgieb]

Also Shady why did you delete that post, it's 100% true

What did it say?

 

[Spark]

What did it say?

That had he withdrawn the appeal he'd have been excoriated by those media outlets as a woke virtue-signaller who shouldn't be captain.

 

[TheJediBrah]

They only made noise because they were caught blatantly cheating. Whenever there’s the faintest of plausible deniability they’ll back them. Case in point: how you react to anyone claiming the bowlers knew about sandpapergate.

Bro . . . the attack on the players by the media and casual fans was unprecedented. Plenty of cricketers get caught cheating all the time and nothing like it ever happened

Guarantee if it was South Africa or India, or probably anyone else, there's no way anyone gets banned for more than the 1 game the ICC dictated

 

[thierry henry]

Bro . . . the attack on the players by the media and casual fans was unprecedented. Plenty of cricketers get caught cheating all the time and nothing like it ever happened

Sandpapergate was such a weird one to me. It’s still such a thing in NZ even amongst non-cricket fans, still a reference that people find eternally hilarious. I just couldn’t get into it. It’s ball-tampering ffs. Such an underwhelming scandal.

 

[Adders]

I've got a (kinda) mate on FB who to this day refuses to watch Australia play cricket while Warner and Smith are in the side. It's true, the reaction from some casual fan basses to sandpapergate is off the wall bizarre.

But to be honest I do think Australian cricket dug this hole for themselves......you've created this belief that your cricket sides play with honour and virtue and would never stoop as low as to cheat. The public and even your PM at the time all brought into the crap. When the masses found out what everyone else already knew the truth was hard to swallow for a lot of people.

 

[Burgey]

We do play with honour and virtue. And then we fist you all to death while doing so.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I've got a (kinda) mate on FB who to this day refuses to watch Australia play cricket while Warner and Smith are in the side. It's true, the reaction from some casual fan basses to sandpapergate is off the wall bizarre.

But to be honest I do think Australian cricket dug this hole for themselves......you've created this belief that your cricket sides play with honour and virtue and would never stoop as low as to cheat. The public and even your PM at the time all brought into the crap. When the masses found out what everyone else already knew the truth was hard to swallow for a lot of people.

So many casuals thing Smith was directly involved, or even did it himself. It's strange.

He has done a lot of dumb borderline dishonest stuff like when he looked to the dressing room about whether to review, probably a bunch of other stuff I'm not remembering, that he should be held accountable for a lot more than the sandpaper thing

Sandpapergate was such a weird one to me. It’s still such a thing in NZ even amongst non-cricket fans, still a reference that people find eternally hilarious. I just couldn’t get into it. It’s ball-tampering ffs. Such an underwhelming scandal.

It's because of the media attack, and the excessive punishment. That's what put it on the map and differentiates it from other ball tampering.

 

[social]

The overwhelming majority of players either used to tamper with the ball or knew about it

The thing about sandpapergate is that it was so unbelievably stupid.

Might as well have take a Makita power tool onto the ground and asked the umpire if he had an extension cord

Oz media smelled a massive story & played the we’re better than this card and piled on to a ridiculous extent which led to completely over the top


Smith lost the captaincy, a couple of years of international cricket and probably $10 million for something that he shouldn’t have been punished for at all

 

[Spark]

The press conference was the moment it got out of hand. Had they managed that from a PR perspective that evening - had Lehmann done his ****ing job and protected his captain and players from the media, and then had they got in front and actually put up someone to talk to Whateley that morning rather than letting it all blow up without saying a word themselves, then it would have been infinitely more manageable.

 

[social]

Btw, I would rather watch reverse swing with a tampered ball than 98% of balls in a session being bouncers

Guaranteed that the authorities do something about that **** if it continues beyond the Ashes as viewers will switch off

 

[thierry henry]

I've got a (kinda) mate on FB who to this day refuses to watch Australia play cricket while Warner and Smith are in the side. It's true, the reaction from some casual fan basses to sandpapergate is off the wall bizarre.

But to be honest I do think Australian cricket dug this hole for themselves......you've created this belief that your cricket sides play with honour and virtue and would never stoop as low as to cheat. The public and even your PM at the time all brought into the crap. When the masses found out what everyone else already knew the truth was hard to swallow for a lot of people.

See I always saw "cheating at sport" as being the preeminent Australian cultural trait (immediately above cowardice and racism) so the idea of it being contrary to any impression that anyone had about Australians could not have been further from my mind. It's like a scandal about a dog eating its own ****.

 

[OverratedSanity]

It's because of the media attack, and the excessive punishment. That's what put it on the map and differentiates it from other ball tampering.

No, this is nonsense. What put it on the map was that the tampering was caught on camera live, and the coach relayed a message out on the field to tell them how to hide it from the umpires. Complete comedy. And the press conference after in which they admitted several people were in on it. All of that is unprecedented.

The OTT response came later but it was already a massive cluster**** and the most blatant, shameful instance of collective ball tampering.

 

[Son Of Coco]

W

Shri has been in great form this thread

Love his work in general but definitely took it to next level in this thread

This is different though. Sky News was basically running a daily hate campaign against him every night a few months ago.

EDIT: Different in the Australian context that is. Can't speak to what it's like in India though that doesn't sound out of the ordinary based on what I know for sure.

Yeah, Sky were conforming to their stereotype of being butthurt anytime someone mentions climate change, with morons around the country rubbing their two brain cells together in noisy agreement.

 

[social]

See I always saw "cheating at sport" as being the preeminent Australian cultural trait (immediately above cowardice and racism) so the idea of it being contrary to any impression that anyone had about Australians could not have been further from my mind. It's like a scandal about a dog eating its own ****.

From the country that gave us Chris Pringle and Richie McCaw

 

[TheJediBrah]

No, this is nonsense. What put it on the map was that the tampering was caught on camera live, and the coach relayed a message out on the field to tell them how to hide it from the umpires. Complete comedy. And the press conference after in which they admitted several people were in on it. All of that is unprecedented.

The OTT response came later but it was already a massive cluster****.

no you're mostly wrong, the things you mentioned definitely didn't the help but they're not what made the difference

As Spark mentioned the press conference was the next biggest thing for sure

 

[Spark]

No, this is nonsense. What put it on the map was that the tampering was caught on camera live, and the coach relayed a message out on the field to tell them how to hide it from the umpires. Complete comedy. And the press conference after in which they admitted several people were in on it. All of that is unprecedented.

The OTT response came later but it was already a massive cluster****.

I think the press conference is where it blew up here too. People here agreed that it was hilarious, they were idiots, and they had thrown away the series because they would surely miss the next game. But the press conference was such an unmitigated disaster that it guaranteed that it would explode as a story; just this weird mixture of admitting to the substance of the allegation, being weirdly evasive (for no reason!) and straight-faced denial about the implications.

The coach relaying the message wasn't a detail we knew until later.