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I thought there were impressive contributions from your heroes, the Marsh brothers?

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I don’t have any Australian cricketing heroes.

Sad that you take so much pleasure when personnel in the team you purport to support have a bad day at the office.

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Pakistan 282 & 400/9d beat Australia 145 & 164 by 373 runs.

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CRICKET

Ethics report says Australian sides have ‘culture of disrespect for opponents’

Elizabeth Ammon

October 29 2018, 12:00pm, The Times

Smith is still serving a ban for his part in the ball-tampering scandal

Smith is still serving a ban for his part in the ball-tampering scandalSTEVE CHRISTO/AP

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Cricket Australia’s selection panel have been advised to take a player’s character into account as well as their playing ability as part of a scathing report into the culture of Australian cricket which was published yesterday.

The governing body has been branded “arrogant” and “controlling” in a wide-ranging review, commissioned after the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town in March, which led to the resignation of Darren Lehmann, the head coach, year-long bans for Steve Smith, the former captain, and David Warner, the former vice-captain, and a nine-month ban for Cameron Bancroft.

The report concluded that Cricket Australia (CA) was partially to blame for the ball-tampering incident. The review found there was “strong systemic and organisational input” into the use of sandpaper on the ball during Australia’s third Test against South Africa.

The damning 145-page report, which was produced by the Ethics Centre in Australia, concludes that the governing body has operated under a command-and-control structure where only results matter and where combativeness and aggression are seen as positive traits. It concludes that the ball-tampering scandal was “not an aberration” but “an extreme example of a latent tendency growing out of the prevailing culture of men’s cricket in Australia”.

As part of the review process, the Ethics Centre interviewed players and CA employees and reported that the “core complaint” was that the organisation “does not respect anyone other than its own”. The players felt they were “treated as commodities”. CA’s sponsors told the review that they believed their value to the organisation was “defined solely in transactional terms”.

The report is highly critical of the widespread use of sledging and concluded that there was a “culture of disrespect for the opposition, as seen in the common practice of abusive sledging, that runs through Australian domestic and international cricket, to a degree not practised by other nations”.

Bancroft was the junior member of the team entrusted to take the sandpaper onto the pitch
Bancroft was the junior member of the team entrusted to take the sandpaper onto the pitch996×664

Bancroft was the junior member of the team entrusted to take the sandpaper onto the pitchTONY MCDONOUGH/EPA

David Peever, CA’s chairman, said that he accepted responsibility for what happened in Cape Town but rejected calls for the entire board to resign given the accusations contained in the report.

The report makes 41 recommendations for changes including establishing an ethics commission. CA has rejected the recommendation that members of Australia’s Test and one-day teams can be excused from T20 internationals to play domestic cricket but has accepted or is considering the rest. The governing body will review its selection policy “with a heightened emphasis on players’ character and behaviour in line with the players’ pact”.

The pact, which CA says is an overarching statement as to how cricketers in Australia should play the game, reads: “We recognise how lucky we are to play this great game. We respect the game and its traditions. We want to make all Australians proud. Compete with us. Smile with us. Fight on with us. Dream with us.”

The conclusions in the report have led to calls, including by Lehmann, for Smith and Warner’s bans to be reduced, claiming they were scapegoats for wider, systemic problems.

In charge at time of the crisis

Darren Lehmann Resigned as head coach and replaced by Justin Langer. Has since worked at CA’s national performance centre.

James Sutherland Resigned as chief executive in June after 20 years working at the governing body and was replaced by Kevin Roberts.

David Peever Re-elected chairman for another three years before culture review.

Trevor Hohns and Greg Chappell Both selectors remain in place.

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Not much there that we haven’t already known about for years.

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