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Cricket - SandpaperGate

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liquidfootball2
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Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

Could this be the end for Lehman as coach and Smith as captain?

Steve Smith is fighting to keep his job as Australia captain after he confessed the team management decided to cheat by tampering with the ball in the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

Australian cricket was landed in its biggest crisis for years when Cameron Bancroft was caught by television cameras trying to scuff up the ball with tape. He hid the tape down his trousers when questioned by the umpires, who did not change the ball. But in an extraordinary end-of-play press conference Bancroft admitted ball-tampering and Smith revealed it was the idea of the team management during the lunch break.

“The leadership group knew about it. We spoke about it (ball-tampering) at lunch. I am not proud of what has happened. It is not in the spirit of the game, not in line with my integrity, the team’s integrity. The leadership group’s integrity has come into question and rightly so. It is not on.."

Smith and head coach Darren Lehmann will be under huge pressure to step down or be sacked. Cricket Australia has taken a strong line on player behaviour in the Big Bash to protect the reputation of its family friendly multi-million dollar tournament and will be facing pressure to show it has the stomach to take a tough line against its Test team. The position of Australia Test captain carries great prestige and is often described as the second most important job in the country behind being prime minister. 

The match referee, Jeff Crowe, has charged Bancroft with trying to alter the conditions of the ball, but now must decide whether to take action against Smith as well. 

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/ ... 41516.html

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My 2cents worth - This will be Darren Lehmann’s greatest test as a coach, cos I will struggle to believe that this was all Bancroft’s idea.

#SandpaperGate.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by forestfan »

Seemingly yellow sticky tape not sandpaper, but blatant cheating that they have basically admitted to. Has to cost those involved meaningful suspensions, and probably Smith’s job as captain.

Maybe this is why they won the Ashes 4-0... shall we replay it? On second thoughts, perhaps not!

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

forestfan wrote:Seemingly yellow sticky tape not sandpaper, but blatant cheating that they have basically admitted to. Has to cost those involved meaningful suspensions, and probably Smith’s job as captain.

Maybe this is why they won the Ashes 4-0... shall we replay it? On second thoughts, perhaps not!
Accused South Africa of crossing the line, such hypocrisy.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

forestfan wrote:Seemingly yellow sticky tape not sandpaper, but blatant cheating that they have basically admitted to. Has to cost those involved meaningful suspensions, and probably Smith’s job as captain.

Maybe this is why they won the Ashes 4-0... shall we replay it? On second thoughts, perhaps not!
There are plenty who don't readily believe Cameron Bancroft and maintain that it is sandpaper.

Take it from a woodwork craftsman. That’s 1100 grit yellow. https://t.co/5gDDIGFxGk

Australia wake up to this and former players can't quite believe it


http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... his?-steyn

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

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BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew: "Laws of cricket: 'The major responsibility for fair play rests with the captains...' Smith has admitted not merely cheating, but planning to cheat. Everything else in that ill-tempered series is irrelevant to this. By his own actions, Smith's position as captain is untenable."

Fox Sports cricket journalist Tom Morris: "I'm not sure how Australia can have a national captain that has openly admitted to cheating. Cricket Australia must be strong, even though it will hurt."

Indian news anchor and author Rajdeep Sardesai: "Time to have a red card in cricket: sorry but Bancroft and Smith should be sent off the field, Aus play rest of the game with 9 players, Lehmann sacked. No option left now... this is worse than underarm bowling all those years ago and surely worse than 'banter'."

Former Australia spinner Shane Warne to Sky Sports: "You can't have that in the game. I don't have any issue with anyone if they are sucking on a mint or chewing some gum, that's just natural saliva. But if you use a foreign object then that has to be seriously looked at."

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by RomynPG »

On the BBCs coverage I got as far as the second paragraph...

"Cameron Bancroft admitted he tampered with the ball on Saturday in Cape Town, and captain Steve Smith said he knew of the plan in advance."

Why? ... just so stupid on all levels :roll:

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by Edmondson »

Amazed Smith hasn’t been ousted straight away. Maybe he was hoping for some kudos from his honesty, but the backlash must mean he departs shortly.

That whole Aussie side needs a shake up, Warner been given far too free a reign to act like the idiot he is.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

Smith and Warner stood down from their roles for the remainder of this test.

Tim Paine is acting captain.

Australia captain Steve Smith and VC David Warner are stood down from roles for remainder of Test after ball-tampering scandal... but still play on

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/201 ... Y5SjjHXNyP

They've put the rest of the team in a totally invidious position because their very presence on the field still casts a shadow and must lead to the team being completely flat and rudderless

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by forestfan »

liquidfootball2 wrote: 25 Mar 2018, 09:57 Smith and Warner stood down from their roles for the remainder of this test.

Tim Paine is acting captain.

Australia captain Steve Smith and VC David Warner are stood down from roles for remainder of Test after ball-tampering scandal... but still play on

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/201 ... Y5SjjHXNyP

They've put the rest of the team in a totally invidious position because their very presence on the field still casts a shadow and must lead to the team being completely flat and rudderless
Well, playing with 9 men surely wouldn’t have improved their chances... they wouldn’t have even been allowed sub fielders. Unless they faked injuries as well :wink:

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

This is just the latest in a long list of indiscretions giving the impression that Smith and Cricket Australia are just completely out of control.

It's not just this series but the previous one too and even before that.

When Jimmy Anderson (not exactly an angel himself) was removing mud from the ball, the official Australian cricket board twitter feed was active in trying to work the crowd over that.

There was the juvenile and very ordinary performance of Headbutt-Gate when Smith and Cameron Bancroft sniggered their way through a press conference in an effort to undermine Johnny Bairstow

Darren Lehmann as Australian coach a few years ago was telling the Australian public to send Stuart Broad back in tears for not walking after an extremely bad and clear umpiring error had let him off in a previous series.

James Sutherland, the head of the board was at the forefront of complaints about South African sledging and the abuse from the crowd, something that never happens in Australia.

Send-offs to batsmen and sledging have been a feature of Australian cricket since time immemorial and Smith's side have been as bad as any.

There were the unpleasant and nasty scenes between Quinten de Koch and David Warner and other Australian fielders at the tea interval when he appeared to be physically jostled and pushed.

There are two sides to every incident and some of these do have mitigating circumstances but there is a common factor and that unfortunately is Steve Smith and the Australian cricket team

It appeared that Smith (this is the first and only time honest guv) was more sorry he'd been caught more than anything else, and not so much for trying to cheat with all the premeditation that these actions entailed. He seemed to have the attitude that we're sorry and we regret it but I won't resign and we move on, without realising what he'd just admitted to.

The Ashes victory where reverse swing was such a feature now inevitably has a hollow feeling too, how much of that was achieved without premeditated cheating?

The ball tampering in itself isn't such a major discretion as most sides have tried to do that to some extent. It's the planning to cheat, the premeditation, discussing it between the leading group of players (who exactly are they?) and then getting a young lad to do the dirty work including the blatant attempt at deception of the umpires seemingly after being found out that's so poor.

Lehmann tried to cover their tracks and it seems hard to see his position as anything but untenable, Smith and Warner really should be dropped for Australia to try and recover a brutally damaged reputation regarding behaviour over a long period since Smith took over as captain. Its been a winning team but also perhaps a much reviled one.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by Brightwater »

I wouldn't normally have watched this game, but saw 2 great sessions of test cricket, enjoyed seeing the Aussies batting collapse, England style. The interviews should be interesting. :twisted:

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by Tacalabala »

It's a long drop from the time of Warne and Ponting, they were hard, tough opponents who rarely missed a trick, but I never doubted their integrity as cricketers.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by Brightwater »

Morkel and du Plessis both mention reverse swing. :roll:

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by blahblah »

Excuse my cynicism......

Footballers diving, conning the ref and saying it is up to the ref to catch us\them, "taking one for the team"...; Bloodgate in the oh so honourable Rugby Union, that hallowed land of the "Dark Arts" of rucking, mauling and the scrum; Atherton Ball Tampered as England Capt(?).....

I doubt many of that stuff was unpremeditated even if the diving is more "the manager won't be pleased, he should have gone down there".

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by Tacalabala »

I guess the difference is that from very early on, cheating has been part of football and deceiving the ref is seen as clever play.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

This sums it up...

No 1 on the list of countries lacerating Australia’s cricketers is Australia itself. Steve Smith’s homeland is undergoing an identity crisis that reveals how deeply the Baggy Greens are embedded in the nation’s psyche.

Outsiders might have considered it a bit cheesy to say Australia’s cricket captain is junior only to the Prime Minister. Now, you had better believe it.

When Smith’s team won the Ashes in Perth in December, it was hardly national rejoicing and car horns all night. But the low-key reaction was misleading. The ball-tampering scandal pullulating in South Africa has sent the country into a spin and confirmed the misgivings that were already there about Smith’s generation.

“An earthquake of arrogance” was one front-page response. And any event that can make the great Jim Maxwell choke up on air during live commentary is bound to leave an indelible mark in Australian sporting history.

During the Ashes, Smith’s team paraded a renegade streak that was concealed by traditional hostility to the Poms. That cover is no longer there, and Australians have been piling in.

Before fighting back tears, Maxwell called the ball-tampering in Cape Town, “so blatant, so stupid, naive and immature”. He has also said: "I've started to become more and more offended by the arrogance of some of the players in the way they behave.”

Soon, there will be a rash of whataboutism and moral equivalence. Sick of being pummelled, some will look for comparable examples of cheating around the cricketing world. For now, though, Australians are unanimous. They reject the conspiracy as much as the cheating: the cack-handed plotting and dishonesty, which has cast a shadow over the world’s best batsman - the so-called new Don Bradman - the whole team, and finally Australian sport.

Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, said: “It’s their [Cricket Australia’s] responsibility to deal with it, but I have to say that [to] the whole nation, who holds those who wear the Baggy Green up on a pedestal, about as high as you can get in Australia... this is a shocking disappointment.”

And from Adam Gilchrist, a great Corinthian as well as wicketkeeper-batsman: "Australian cricket is the laughing stock of the sporting world. I remember being a current player and the last thing you wanted was ex-players putting the boot in, but I have the feeling we have been all really badly let down here.”

Despair has spread like wildfire. Greg Baum, one of the country’s leading sports journalists, writes: “At stake is the integrity and honour not just of Australian cricket, but all of Australian sport. Typically, when scandal and skullduggery beset sports, Australia sets itself piously above the fray. Aggressive and mouthy, perhaps, but cheating?

“And so we arrive at the crux: the Australian cricket team just doesn't get it. It didn't get it when they arrived in South Africa and asked for the pitch mikes to be muted between balls, virtually announcing the campaign of abuse to come. Perhaps it should have asked for the cameras to avert their gaze as well. It didn't get it as the humour of the series deteriorated to the point of pathetic, marring an otherwise sublime contest and alienating fans in their own country.”

In Cape Town, another Australian cricket writer, Peter Lalor, tweeted: “This Test can’t continue. It is a farce. The Australians must at the very least declare their 4th innings before it begins.”

Richard Hinds, meanwhile, wrote of the damage to Australia’s self-image: “This includes the juniors to whom the team is portrayed as role models in promotional and advertising campaigns, the club cricketers who form a vital part of the game's eco-system and the viewing public which is constantly sold the message that the Australian team represents the very best of what we are.”
Dan Brettig added: “Seldom in elite sport has a team been caught cheating so clearly, so systematically, and so collectively. Seldom has a team normalising sharp practice, and enlisting the youngest members of the team to carry it out, been so wholly exposed.”

At play here is long-standing but suppressed disillusionment with this team’s conduct and demeanour, of which there were echoes in the Steve Waugh era of “mental disintegration”. Historically, Australian cricket has often been conflicted. The desperate urge to win - especially against England - is at odds with the idea of cricket as a civilising force and badge of Aussie dignity.

This tension is breaking out all over, and thoughts are already returning to the Ashes, where Jonny Bairstow was subjected to “personal” (his word) abuse on the field in Brisbane, Cameron Bancroft and Smith hammed-up the Bairstow “headbutt” incident, and Nathan Lyon recalled “scared eyes” and “scars” and broken careers from England's battering by Mitchell Johnson.

In New Zealand, England’s Stuart Broad has already taken a retrospective view of the Cape Town outcry. “Look at the Ashes series we’ve just played, look through all of those Test matches and they reverse swing the ball sometimes in conditions you wouldn’t expect the ball to reverse,” Broad said. “So I don’t understand why they’ve changed their method for this one game.”

Darren Lehmann, Australia’s coach, remember, said the home crowd should hound Broad so relentlessly that “he cries and goes home”. This whirlwind is now bring reaped, with Baum concluding: “Hard, but fair? You can scrap fair right now. The Australian way? It's time to try another.”

For me Australia has finally lost faith in its arrogant, cheating cricket team which is reaping what it sowed.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... cket-team/
Last edited by liquidfootball2 on 31 Mar 2018, 08:22, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by forestfan »

blahblah wrote: 25 Mar 2018, 17:09 Excuse my cynicism......

Footballers diving, conning the ref and saying it is up to the ref to catch us\them, "taking one for the team"...; Bloodgate in the oh so honourable Rugby Union, that hallowed land of the "Dark Arts" of rucking, mauling and the scrum; Atherton Ball Tampered as England Capt(?).....

I doubt many of that stuff was unpremeditated even if the diving is more "the manager won't be pleased, he should have gone down there".
Bloodgate resulted in some long bans didn't it, I can see Australian cricket following a similar course of action here even if the ICC don't.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by blahblah »

forestfan wrote: 25 Mar 2018, 19:22
blahblah wrote: 25 Mar 2018, 17:09 Excuse my cynicism......

Footballers diving, conning the ref and saying it is up to the ref to catch us\them, "taking one for the team"...; Bloodgate in the oh so honourable Rugby Union, that hallowed land of the "Dark Arts" of rucking, mauling and the scrum; Atherton Ball Tampered as England Capt(?).....

I doubt many of that stuff was unpremeditated even if the diving is more "the manager won't be pleased, he should have gone down there".
Bloodgate resulted in some long bans didn't it, I can see Australian cricket following a similar course of action here even if the ICC don't.
Some pure bastion of Egg Chasing got a year or so?

(Dean Richards?)

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

An ICC suspension from the final Test against South Africa may be just the start of sanctions for Australia's captain Steven Smith, who alongside his deputy David Warner faces anything up to a life ban for cheating under Cricket Australia's code of behaviour.


CA's head of integrity Iain Roy and team performance manager Pat Howard travelled to Cape Town to commence an investigation, the CA Board bowed to pressure from the Australian Sports Commission to strip Smith and Warner of their leadership roles for the remainder of the Newlands Test, following their roles in orchestrating the ball tampering attempt that also involved Bancroft.

The focus has sharpened on Smith and Warner, after it was clarified that the lunchtime discussion did not involve the full "leadership group," which has also featured Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, but was instead undertaken by "senior players".

The CA chief executive James Sutherland also issued a public apology to Australian followers of the game, with the Board at a delicate point in the multimillion dollar television rights negotiations for the next five years with the Nine, Ten and Seven networks and the pay television network Fox Sports.

"To our Australian Cricket Fans, we are sorry," Sutherland said. "We are sorry that you had to wake up this morning to news from South Africa that our Australian Men's Cricket team and our Captain admitted to conduct that is outside both the Laws of our game and the Spirit of Cricket. This behaviour calls into question the integrity of the team and Cricket Australia."

The outraged response of the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who spoke to the CA chairman David Peever the moment he touched down on his return from South Africa, was given further heft by the joint call from the ASC chair John Wylie and chief executive Kate Palmer for Smith and Warner to be stood down immediately from leadership until Roy's investigation is complete.



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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by robot »

Just turned the telly on for the first time today and it's headline news :shock: what have things come to when a bit of dodgy ball tampering is the biggest news story in the world!

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by blahblah »

Yep

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

Its still a grade 2 offence but the premeditation planning to cheat and the laughable and ridiculous attempts to deceive the umpires make it so much worse at so many levels.

The reaction at the very highest levels in Australia and massive condemnation form their own media, leading cricket journalists and former players promise widespread and harsh punishment for any found to be culpable.

They will be investigating it fully and with the whole focus of their public and media on the issue, will find it near impossible to sweep it under the carpet.

Steve Smith and David Warner await fate as Cricket Australia launches investigation into ball-tampering, They likely both face a lengthy ban or even the sack.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/201 ... ZCHs17wlQw

Papers around the cricketing world are headlining it
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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

''Lehmann set to stand down''

http://www.skysports.com/share/11305424

Smith and Warner set for one year bans

Darren Lehmann is expected to announce his resignation as head coach of Australia in the next 24 hours, becoming the first casualty of the ball-tampering scandal.

Sources in Australia have said Lehmann is ready to stand down with immediate effect and his decision is partly why James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, suddenly announced on Monday that he is flying to South Africa.

Sutherland is due to meet the players and coaching staff in Johannesburg on Tuesday with a press conference expected that evening when announcements about Lehmann and action against Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are likely to be announced. Smith and Warner are thought to be facing the prospect of 12-month suspensions from the sport.

Lehmann, who has been head coach for five years, winning two Ashes series and a World Cup, has not spoken publicly since the ball-tampering scandal erupted on Saturday.

But as head coach he will have to take full responsibility for what happened on his watch, even if he was not directly involved in the decision. Lehmann, as coach, is accountable for the culture within the team and has presided over a side happy to agree to pre-meditated cheating. There are also few left who believe Smith’s explanation that Saturday’s incident was a one off. Australia have also pushed the boundaries in terms of on-field abuse under Lehmann and cleaning up the side will have to include changes to the top of the management structure. Lehmann announced last year that he will be stepping down anyway after the 2019 Ashes tour.

Lehmann was appointed in the aftermath of the 'homeworkgate' row which led to four players being suspended on a tour of India for failing to give coach Mickey Arthur feedback on how the team could improve. Arthur’s reputation never recovered and he was sacked during the 2013 Ashes tour of England. Lehmann was brought in to bring a harder edge to the side and a return to so-called Australian values. Those values have been shattered by what happened in Cape Town.

Smith and Warner are facing the likelihood of year-long suspensions by Cricket Australia that will also cost them millions of pounds in IPL earnings. Cricket Australia are under intense pressure to make examples of the two leaders in the team and suspending them from international duty, but allowing them make money in the IPL would send a terrible message.

Smith and Warner are the highest paid Australian cricketers in the IPL. Both were retained by their franchises before January’s auction on deals worth £1.1m. Warner plays for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and has twice been the leading scorer in the IPL which has rocketed his value.

Cricket Australia has been told to act swiftly and decisively by the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, and are facing the prospect of losing sponsors. The board is also at a delicate stage of negotiating its broadcast deals and cannot afford to have its position in those talks weakened by failing to act in the most shocking case of team discipline in the modern history of the Australian side.

Until Saturday afternoon in Cape Town Smith was the golden boy of Australian cricket, billed as the new Don Bradman and poised to captain the side for years. But his world has been shattered. His reputation is in tatters. A serious form of punishment will have to include suspension from a home Australian summer. India are due to Australia this winter.

Cricket Australia has broad sanctions at its disposal under the terms of its central contracts with the Australian players and is currently investigating what exactly happened in the dressing room at Newlands before Bancroft went out on the field in the afternoon session with sticky tape in his pocket and attempted to change the condition of the ball.

The big decision for Cricket Australia is deciding the level of culpability. Does it punish players for simply knowing what was going on? That could lead to fines or suspensions for many others beyond the trio currently in the spotlight.

Several senior players are understood to be incensed by Smith’s comments on Saturday when he implicated the ‘leadership group’ as a collective in the plan to cheat. It is thought he was trying to protect Warner and spread the blame but team-mates such as Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are believed to be extremely upset to have been dragged into it and had not been involved in the discussions.

What Lehmann knew will be key. He was seen on camera speaking via a walkie-talkie to 12th man Peter Handscomb moments after Bancroft was caught on television using yellow sticky tape to rub the ball. Handscomb then immediately went on the field and delivered a message to Bancroft, who then stuffed the yellow tape down his trousers and when asked to empty his pockets by the on-field umpires, showed them the cloth for cleaning his sunglasses.

In many ways Lehmann is the easiest for Cricket Australia to deal with. Australia are not short of great former players to call upon to take control of the team. Ricky Ponting will be the favourite along with Justin Langer and Jason Gillespie. All three men are hugely respected for their playing careers and have enjoyed success as coaches.

Ponting may not want the job full time but more countries are likely to split their coaching roles going forward anyway due to the amount of time teams are on the road.

Smith had already lost his job as captain of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL when the franchise announed on Monday that India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will replace him for the seasons which starts early next month.

Cricket Australia has to move quickly. The fourth Tests starts in Johannesburg on Friday and Australia will need to fly replacements out to South Africa. Smith has already been banned by the ICC and it is inconceivable Warner and Bancroft will play even if Cricket Australia has not decided its sanctions by then.

Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw are on standby to join the touring party and Tim Paine is likely to continue as captain.

Joe Root said in Auckland on Monday that he was not aware of any ball-tampering by Australia during the last Ashes. “Not to my knowledge, I personally wasn’t aware of anything going on throughout that series. It’s obviously been very well documented and I personally have got plenty on my plate to worry about. But it is disappointing for Test cricket and cricket in general.

"I think as an international player you know the rules and I think it’s important you shouldn’t really have to back that up. Every time you go out and represent your country you knows there’s a load of cameras around, you’re under the spotlight and I think it’s really important you of course give absolutely everything on the field and make sure you do everything you can to win but do it in the right way - it’s as simple as that.”

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by Brightwater »

It would be unlikely that the fast bowlers were unaware of the reverse swing potential. With or without prior involvement they would notice grit on the ball.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

Just saw the Cricket Australia news conference and find it hard to believe that Lehmann has been exonerated and carries on, as even if and it's possibly a sizeable IF, he knew nothing about their plan, the general bad behaviour, boorishness and arrogance seen in recent years can almost be exactly dated from the moment his watch began

It looks as though the other three will have some very harsh penalties to come though having all been sent home immediately

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by forestfan »

I’ll guess at a year, they’ll be back for the Ashes, to sandpaper aeroplanes and rolls of Sellotape hurled at them from the Western Terrace and Eric Hollies Stand...

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

Ha - Yes no doubt.

Lehmann surely can't be trusted to lead any great reform though, he needs to go for 1 of 2 reasons.
He was either involved, or as they maintain he wasn't but in that case he isn’t competent enough to be able to control his senior players who have been shown to be busy hatching plots to cheat right under his nose.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

After today there may well be question marks around how long James Sutherland can survive after what many are calling a virtual whitewash.

There is mounting criticism and disbelief in Australia amid claims that Cricket Australia let Darren Lehmann off “scot free” while sending three players home in disgrace for the ball-tampering plot during the Cape Town Test.

Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner will be told tomorrow how long they will be banned and will return home after the most shameful incident in Australia cricket’s recent history.

Sources close to Lehmann had indicated that the head coach was ready to resign on Tuesday such was his shock at events but there appeared to have been a change of heart overnight. Following calls for Lehmann to be sacked, James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, has cleared him of any prior knowledge of the plan to ball tamper. 

Sutherland announced a wider investigation into “team culture” which will scrutinise Lehmann’s methods and ultimately decide his fate. Despite surviving for the rest of the South Africa tour his position may still prove untenable. 

When Sutherland sacked Mickey Arthur as head coach five years ago he said the responsibility for team discipline lay with the head coach. “Discipline, consistency of behaviour and accountability for performances are all key ingredients that need to improve.

Sutherland said on Tuesday preliminary investigations had shown “knowledge was limited to three players” despite Smith describing those involved as a “leadership group” on Saturday WHICH SOMEHOW INCLUDED BANCROFT playing in only his EIGHTH TEST and NONE of the coaching staff.

Smith looks certain to be sacked as captain and face a lengthy ban, alongside his deputy Warner and Bancroft, the young player who was chosen to carry out the ball tampering.

Sutherland’s claim that nobody else was involved in the plan was met with surprise and anger at home in Australia with suggestions of a whitewash

“The truth, the full story, accountability and leadership - until the public get this Australian cricket is in deep s---,” said Michael Clarke, the recently retired Australia captain.

Sutherland had been under huge pressure to act decisively but he refused to use the word ‘cheating’ despite being invited to several times during his press conference. He would only go as far to say as what happened was not “within the laws of the game” and “it is not a good day for Australian cricket.”


“I find it remarkable that Darren Lehmann did not know anything about this and has basically been exonerated. The behaviour of the Australian team has gone down and down under Lehmann and Steve Smith. He (Lehmann) is lucky to get off scot free,” said Bob Willis on Sky. “Surely the head coach has to be part of the leadership group of an international cricket team so I find that almost unbelievable and he is very lucky to survive.”

International bowling attacks are very particular about the management of ball shining with set routines on the field. It is Australia’s bowling attack that is its strongest asset with senior players such as Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon integral to the team’s fortunes. “In every team I played in good luck doing anything to the ball without consulting the bowlers first! Be taking your life in your own hands,” said Matt Prior, the former England wicketkeeper.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/201 ... dal-steve/
Last edited by liquidfootball2 on 31 Mar 2018, 08:17, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

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Lehmann never knew - ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥

Kevin Pietersen

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Re: Cricket - SandpaperGate

Post by liquidfootball2 »

'Smith, Warner banned for 12 months'

http://www.skysports.com/share/11306865

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