Cheats XI

[Xuhaib]

Here's the excerpt from a book by Ian Smith:

By the time we got to Faisalabad for the third test, we were really on a hiding to nothing.

The Pakistanis were simply too good for us, especially as our team lacked John Wright, Bracewell, Jeff Crowe, Richard Hadlee, Andrew Jones and martin Snedden, who'd all either retired just before or made themselves unavailable.
The Pakistani pace bowlers, especially Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were getting amazing reverse swing. Our quickies, Danny Morrison, Willie Watson and Chris Pringle, were getting virtually no movement after the first few overs.
During the test at Lahore, we got lucky by receiving a big clue as to how Pakistan's bowlers might have been getting some help. Towards the end of the test, Pakistan took the new ball. The umpires gave the Pakistanis the new ball and, as is usually the case, rolled the old one off the park. The local officials were a little slow to pick up on the fact that the old ball was sitting on the boundary edge and for once we beat them to the punch, grabbed the ball and smuggled it into our dressing room for inspection.
There was little doubt it was uniquely damaged on only one side. It had been scratched by something - long scratches too. We took a couple of quick photos before the local officials tried to thwart our plan by retrieving the ball. But we'd had time to formulate some methods of our own.
So prior to the next test, in Faisalabad, Martin Crowe and a few of the bowlers began experimenting in the nets, scratching one side witha bottle top. Chris Pringle, in particular, started getting a vast amount of swing. Even us mere part-timers were able to swing it. Chris decided to have some fun in the next test, and he certainly did.
He put a piece of bottle top in his pocket and used it to scratch the ball, at drinks and at the fall of each wicket. The ball began to swing for him and he found he was also getting much more movement off the wicket. None of our bowlers could get reverse swing - they weren't quite quick enough for that. But Pringle got so much assistance from the roughed-up ball that it didn't matter. He took 7/52 in the first innings and 4/100 in the second. I'll go as far as to say Pringle bowled as well in that first innings as he had ever bowled - it was Hadlee-like.

Seems like moaning and excuses from a battered team.

 

[Goughy]

Seems like moaning and excuses from a cheated team.

I dont agree with what you said, more likely to agree with the above quote!

See I knew that me posting on this thread would be a bad idea.

 

[Xuhaib]

Didn't a test match between South Africa and India a few years ago lose it's test status because Tendulkar picked the seam?

On a serious note, this thread is a bit... dumb, in my opinion.

We have had threads on lefties XI, good looking XI, Dont meet in a dark alley XI and many more, so why not this?

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Seems like moaning and excuses from a battered team.

Seems like different perspectives from people of opposing countries.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

We have had threads on lefties XI, good looking XI, Dont meet in a dark alley XI and many more, so why not this?

Because this pretty much invites people to make personal attacks on players due to personal biases.

 

[Scaly piscine]

No-one mentioned Shahid Afridi yet?

 

[Smudge]

Seems like moaning and excuses from a battered team.

Oh dear.

Very few cricket followers in New Zealand would have expected NZ to go well against Pakistan on that tour - a) because of the massive amount of retirements and b) because Pakistan was a team on the rise and we were on the way down after a very successful decade.

Look at NZ's second test line-up, for God's sake:

TJ Franklin
DJ White
MJ Greatbatch
*MD Crowe
KR Rutherford
DN Patel
GE Bradburn
+IDS Smith
C Pringle
DK Morrison
W Watson

Crowe and Smith world-class, Greatbatch, Rutherford and Morrison (and possibly Patel) the next rung below, and the rest were deadset journeymen.

Up against this lot:

Rameez Raja
Shoaib Mohammad
Saleem Malik
*Javed Miandad
Ijaz Ahmed
+Saleem Yousuf
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younis
Saleem Jaffar
Aaqib Javed

It shouldn't have been a close series - and it wasn't. But not totally due to fair means...

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

No-one mentioned Shahid Afridi yet?

Miss the first post there champ?

 

[Scaly piscine]

Miss the first post there champ?

The number 2 slot threw me...

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

The number 2 slot threw me...

I assumed.

 

[alternative]

Ganguly- Overrates, repeated reprimanded for the same offence.

Get real mate..

 

[Goughy]

Get real mate..

What did I miss? He made a habit of it and either he was incompetent or breaking the rules. I fail to see whats wrong with my post.

 

[Goughy]

Crowe and Smith world-class, Greatbatch, Rutherford and Morrison (and possibly Patel) the next rung below, and the rest were deadset journeymen.

It must be a pretty big rung. I would have thought Dipak was the definition of journeyman (batting av= 21, bowling av= 42).

 

[Smudge]

Well, yes - I was being VERY flexible with that rung. If it was on a ladder it would bend all the way down to the ground.

 

[Xuhaib]

I dont agree with what you said, more likely to agree with the above quote!

See I knew that me posting on this thread would be a bad idea.

Ofcourse, Pakistan had to cheat to win the seiries without cheating there was no chance that world beaters like Pringle, Morrisson and Willie Watsom would have been outbowled by two trundlers called Wasim and Waqar.

Wasim and Waqar have not only played international cricket but they have also had successfull county careers and never have they been caught cheating in their county stints. Infact Freddie himself has stated that Wasim was a great help with reverse swing the same reverse swing which was labelled cheating by the british media.

 

[Burpey]

Ofcourse, Pakistan had to cheat to win the seiries without cheating there was no chance that world beaters like Pringle, Morrisson and Willie Watsom would have been outbowled by two trundlers called Wasim and Waqar.

Wasim and Waqar have not only played international cricket but they have also had successfull county careers and never have they been caught cheating in their county stints. Infact Freddie himself has stated that Wasim was a great help with reverse swing the same reverse swing which was labelled cheating by the british media.

So why did they cheat then?

 

[andyc]

Ofcourse, Pakistan had to cheat to win the seiries without cheating there was no chance that world beaters like Pringle, Morrisson and Willie Watsom would have been outbowled by two trundlers called Wasim and Waqar.

Wasim and Waqar have not only played international cricket but they have also had successfull county careers and never have they been caught cheating in their county stints. Infact Freddie himself has stated that Wasim was a great help with reverse swing the same reverse swing which was labelled cheating by the british media.

I find it pretty odd that Chris Pringle's account of the same incident is exactly the same as the one Voltman posted. And the fact that, hating to generalise, umpires from the subcontinent (and indeed other countries, but more notoriously the subcontinent) were somewhat biased, and tend to turn a blind eye to such things, which could account for the fact that they weren't caught.

 

[Dasa]

I find it pretty odd that Chris Pringle's account of the same incident is exactly the same as the one Voltman posted. And the fact that, hating to generalise, umpires from the subcontinent (and indeed other countries, but more notoriously the subcontinent) were somewhat biased, and tend to turn a blind eye to such things, which could account for the fact that they weren't caught.

I'd say that's more due to an ingrained attitude remaining in cricket, and due to the fact that more non-subcontinental cricketers have been inclined to write about their cricketing days and describe any such incidents in detail.

 

[steds]

Does every thing need to be taken too seriously.

Do you not think calling someone a cheat is a serious accusation?

 

[alternative]

What did I miss? He made a habit of it and either he was incompetent or breaking the rules. I fail to see whats wrong with my post.

From time to time, the pressure gets to the captains and thus the over rate gets to be an issues..

Edit: ok, i take it back.. i can look at in your angle.. but certainly there is other like Punter for example..