but, really… using a foreign object, brought specifically on to the field of play, in an attempt to alter the condition of the ball in order to gain an advantage; that’s just effing BS and totally completely 100% indefensible.

To this can I add instructing* the junior player to actually do it, possibly because he’s the one that least focus would be on.

* he could and should have told them to sod off, of course but the pressure that was potentially put on him, we might never really know. At least Smith had the honesty to say it was a senior player plan; Bancroft can’t and won’t accept censure but let’s not condemn him absolutely until we really know what his role was in the debacle.

accept = escape

seems their 2nd innings is going quite well – maybe some of ours should try getting caught cheating

I was a little worried that since retiring KP might not know what to do with himself, It’s OK he has an opinion!!

He has a point. Let’s be honest – this will hardly be the first & only time this has happened. Journos will now be scouring archives for more footage

how come england picked an  allrounder who couldn’t bowl ?

If you are talking Stokes I’d suggest his batting form alone gets him in the team – a genuine all-rounder.

This will be the sixth match in a row – including the entire Ashes – in which England have failed to take 20 wickets.

Winless  and 9 defeats in there last 11 test matches probably 10 in 12 after today( I’m in NZ and off to watch) stretching back to October 2016. No answer to the opening partnership issue for three years, No potential replacements for the ageing Anderson and Broad No established No3 and No spinner who can actually turn the ball picked in the side. It’s been great fun supporting English cricket recently.

But at least we don’t cheat. Not all the time.

So, Qantas and other key sponsors considering their relationships with Cricket Australia. TV deal for cricket still to be agreed. This could be very expensive.

Obviously it’s fairly amusing to see the Aussies writhing. Well, it was until I heard Jim Maxwell crying on air. 🙁

to their credit I think CA will come down on Smith and his leadership group like a ton of bricks.

Brailsford, sorry Lehman, has also got to be in the firing line as this fairly clearly isn’t a one off.

rain required for england, 1 wicket for NZ

one wicket to go then we can all go back to laughing at the Aussies

all over

aggers having a dig at the aussies 🙂

So the high and mighty Aussies get caught cheating – lie about it, then come clean only when the evidence is overwhelming.

Not so long ago Mr. Chest-Puffed-Out-Warner was ripping into Faf Du Plessis for alleged ball-tampering (which may or may not have been absent minded). Giving it all the usual “we play right up to the line, but only once we cross the boundary and we never cheat and any opposing player is welcome to a beer in our dressing room” BS.

I have zero sympathy. Smith will be forced to step down. Warner will never be made captain.

I still want to know what Quinotn De Kock said about Warner’s missus, though.

I’ll wager it’s the old double-standards again – Warner will claim to be mortally hurt and that De Kock has crossed a line whilst conveniently forgetting all the trash-talk and slobber he has come out with over the years.

Hoist by their own petard. Lovely.

dannyh wrote:

Hoist by their own petard. Lovely.

Isn’t it just. Assuming they continue to be part of the team, Smith and Warner will deservedly get heckled for the rest of their career wherever they go (I’m thinking Bancroft might be let off after a while). I expect also by the Aussie crowd for a while.

Regarding the trash talk, Australia already had no moral high ground after Lehman against Broad in 2013 (and any excuse of Broad being a “cheat” has now definitively gone, not that it was one at the time given the long list of batsmen who don’t walk when clearly out – eg Clarke just to choose a random example)

Not so long ago Mr. Chest-Puffed-Out-Warner was ripping into Faf Du Plessis for alleged ball-tampering (which may or may not have been absent minded). Giving it all the usual “we play right up to the line, but only once we cross the boundary and we never cheat and any opposing player is welcome to a beer in our dressing room” BS.

This Warner? 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/david-warner-at-heart-of-ball-tampering-scandal-20180326-p4z6d3.html

its getting worse isn’t it! tape on the fingers!

A small amount of sympathy for Cameron Bancroft – must be hard to say no to the likes of Smith and Warner if they ask you to do something like that.

As for Stevie and Davie, couldn’t have happened to a nicer pair of fellas. 🙂

Do us a favour and take the delightful Lehmann down with you.

I thought their performance 2nd Innings showed just how effective ‘mental disintegration’ can be. Pity it was self-inflicted.

Do us a favour and take the delightful Lehmann down with you.

I once had the misfortune to spend an hour or so in a club pavilion bar with Lehmann holding court (he was a county teammate of a lad who had played at the club and they both pitched up one Saturday evening). Typical boorish Aussie ocker with some very un-PC views on a number of things. Not a nice bloke.

Thanks for posting that link @zokes, I followed some of the other articles and the Aussie press are going for blood! So good to see 😃

Bang n the money @dannyh, my sentiments and thoughts too.

It reinforces my thoughts from the last Ashes, where they were achieving reverse swing in home conditions and yet our quicks, who lets face it, are better proponents of reverse swing, couldn’t get the ball to move in the air. I call Warner has been on this Since their drawn series with Bangladesh, where they were pretty ordinary IIRC.

The journos are having their fun with this – and there’s a few good ones out there. I like this couple of paragraphs from a Grauniad article:

Similarly Darren Lehmann may or may not get away with the suggestion he had nothing to do with this. But he has overseen an infantilised team culture where such a plot was so easily conceived and where fear of being discovered by good old Boof was clearly not much of an issue. Nothing less than the sack will do for Lehmann. He should be profoundly embarrassed already, although past conduct suggests this may not be the case.

And this is the wider issue. Punishments to one side, there is no doubt the urge to pile in on Australia, to clutch at one’s pearls, to reach for the smelling salts has a lot to do with the attitude of this Aussie team, the unpleasant way it has presented itself over the last few years, all the while preaching about the imaginary “line” Australia alone is qualified to police. Pre-planned sledging routines, boorish pub-level insults, strutting physicality on the field: this has a corrosive effect on everyone concerned. These Australians have few friends in world cricket. They can hardly expect sympathy now.

Chuckle.

Can’t disagree though!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43543713

Smith, Warner and Bancroft sent home – extensive (lol) investigation says the coaches knew nothing and can stay. Smells fishy

So, Smith, Warner and Bancroft sent home. Lehmann presumed innocent.

What about Cummings, Starc, Pattinson and all the other bowlers? I cannot believe they honestly thought and believed it was their awesome abilities and skills generating all that reverse swing?

Are CA going to bottle it? Apparently they’re negotiating broadcasting rights at the moment, although I’m unable to see how a soft stance would help them here.

Jim Maxwell was on R5 saying that Warner was prime instigator and should be banned to play for Australia for life. Smith passed Warner and Bancroft talking about it and said ‘I don’t wasn to know what you’re planning’. Apparently he didn’t know the actual plan.

To me I thought it was odd how England struggled to reverse the ball in the Ashes compared to the Aussies. I guess the camera footage is now being checked?

Can’t believe Uncle Fester is hanging on, given there are only two scenarios, one in which he is complicit, the other in which he is clueless.

Can’t believe Uncle Fester is hanging on, given there are only two scenarios, one in which he is complicit, the other in which he is clueless.

Could you please keep politics out of this thread?

🙂

Although Lehman’s use of the walkie-talkie might have been along the lines of “I don’t know what you’re doing but get rid of that NOW”, I suspect KP’s view is closer to the truth:

https://twitter.com/KP24/status/978692309771579394

Yeah right. It was all down to the bloke that got caught and the bloke no one likes. It wasn’t the leadership group after all and the radio palaver with Hanscombe didn’t really happen and the coach wasn’t aware and the bowlers didn’t realise and it never happened before….

Plausible deniability, taped up fingers and a return to normal service now the lawyers are involved. CA had now better hope that everyone sticks to the script they’ve been given. They’d also better hope that the hours and hours of banked footage that will be scrutinised now doesn’t pick anything else up.

The SMH is covering this very well: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/darren-lehmann-slips-through-as-cricket-australia-tightens-the-noose-20180328-p4z6lh.html

Cricket Australia’s stance is just making it worse. Refusing to use the word ‘cheating’ and opting for “looking for an advantage” and never straying from media/PR bullshit speak  “sharing the anger and the disappointment of the Australian cricket family” .  Shameful

They should void all the bowlers wickets tally from every match warner, smith and bancroft have played in. You can imagine the atmosphere in the dressing room 🙂

Rumours are that Smith and Warner will get a 12 month ban, no news on Bancroft though i think they’re trying to play him as the innocent newbie being bullied by Warner. Tim Paine is the new skipper.

Think a 12 month ban for Warner, never to be picked again. 6 months for Smith which will be a cop out – 12 months will give him no time  with the World Cup and Ashes and cricket Australia will not his reintegration at such a late stage to be an unwanted distraction.

It seems Smith kind of turned a blind eye to the tampering specifics although not sure why that means a lesser ban for a captain. Can’t see The coach lasting much longer although a complete lack of self awareness as with the others, may keep him in the job a bit longer.

Jim Maxwell was interviewed on Radio National this evening: apparently 12 month bans from all Australian cricket for Warner and Smith. No news on Bancroft.

I am starting to feel sorry for Smith though: they’re making him front the media in a hangar at Sydney the moment they touch down from Jo’berg. Not quite sure what publicly interrogating a no doubt very sleep deprived, jet lagged and utterly crushed man will do for anyone.

lunge wrote:

Rumours are that Smith and Warner will get a 12 month ban, no news on Bancroft though i think they’re trying to play him as the innocent newbie being bullied by Warner. Tim Paine is the new skipper.

It’s confirmed – not an official announcement yet, but you can usually rely on the accuracy of cricinfo stories. 9 months for Bancroft.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22939470/steven-smith-david-warner-banned-12-months-cricket-australia