This was on the RTÉ Radio news at 6 last night. A bizarre reach for RTÉ to have this on their news bulletin.
Thankfully Middlesex didn’t sign him. Would hate to see him strolling through the long room at Lords.
Looks like Warner is the main main in the ball tampering row. Story is that he told some of the English players how he was doing it over a few drinks when the Ashes was over. He wears a protective strap on his thumb and finger when fielding (not when batting). Apparently he was copped putting some sandpaper onto it during the second test. Then because the heat was on, they passed the ball minding duties over to Bancroft. Smith, Warner are going to get a lengthy ban, probably a year seeing as they have no test until next October. Lehmann will be getting the bullet.
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I’d say the sledging with Warner in this series was something else. Warner a bit of a sitting duck on that front with Candice as the missus.
That seems to be the way it’s going. A year seems a bit OTT to me. Permanent removal from leadership roles seems sufficient. Remove Lehmann absolutely, the general horrible culture of the team is much worse than this incident in isolation as far as I’m concerned.
Disagree here. You either play, or you don’t play, but there is no point in it at all, in any organised sport that is, if the rules are simply broken.
I’d ban Warner, smith and whichever if the seam bowlers were involved possibly permanently. I suspect they’ll have a good look at when they are next needed, and ban accordingly.
Bancroft said it was his sunglasses case. A helpful cricinfo journalist at Newlands pointed out Bancroft wasn’t wearing sunglasses that day or on either of the first two days of the test. And Smith asks us to believe this was the first time it happened and @Special_Olympiakos that its no biggie and just the Australian players justifiably taking the law into their own hands as fair play ended with Rabada getting reinstated.
You end up going down a whole rabbit hole of which laws when broken constitute “cheating”, for which the book most be thrown, and which are a bit lesser. A lot of the reaction here is reminding me a bit of the Henry handball nonsense. This involved a dollop of premeditation, conspiracy and cover up, so I think it’s right that they are never seen as leaders again. But it’s a slippery slope beyond that I reckon, and if the crime is an outrage to public morality, then it seems fitting that the punishment should be their reputation in the public sphere rather than a direct sporting one.
For what it’s worth, there are three types of rule breach in sport generally that deserve serious sanction in my book.
- Match fixing, you are defrauding the paying public.
- Drug taking, creating an environment whereby you have to endanger your health to compete.
- Serious and deliberate violent conduct that could cause serious harm, e.g. swinging a hurley at someone’s head.
Whatever about Smith I’d say Warner will never play again.
How is it OTT when they have no test until next October??
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Haven’t studied their calendar to be fair. Missing a full year seems a bit much though
Lehmann’s going to resign. Today probably.
Tallaght native and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce stuck the boot in as a major sponsor. Once they speak, everyone listens. CA are in TV rights discussions and likely to lose about $300 mil over this. They dont have a choice but to go nuclear here.
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Im no moraliser braz, but I’d put this up there with drug taking really. Taking a tool onto the field to alter the ball to greatly advantage your bowlers is not bending but absolutely breaking the rules. I found the furore over Thierry Henri both laughable and embarrassing, but this was organised, planned blatant cheating. I honestly think life bans wouldnt be an overreaction. Its a professional sport. They would happily end the professional careers of batsmen who did poorly against a doctored ball. Fuck them. That bancroft is a right weasel also. He’s a relative newbie to the test side, but he’s 25. They are a bunch of pricks.
It’s like winning a club junior hurling championship with ringers. Renders the title utterly meaningless.
Poor James Vince. His test career seemingly ended by cheating Australia ball tampering in the Ashes.
Well let’s see if I can explain it to you simply.
The Australians took sandpaper to the ball to allow them to dismiss batsmen more cheaply. Following so far?
Good.
Now what happens to batsmen who are dismissed cheaply through a series?
A They are in the frame to get dropped.
B Nothing at all.
Nothing to do with him playing his shots.
He should never have been in the position to be facing the Aussies in the first place
It’s against the laws of the game but so was Radaba. When laws aren’t enforced then it’s fair game for anarchy in any walk of life.
Mike Atherton has absolutely eviscerated Smith, Warner and Lehmann in this morning’s Daily Telegraph.
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Completely over the top reaction to a nothing incident
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