Oooooff! This is embarrassing. Seen a press conference with Smith and Bancroft this morning absolutely hanging their heads. https://news.sky.com/story/national...eters-are-slammed-for-ball-tampering-11303609
Stuff like this should carry a ban. Cheats in other sports get banned so why not ban the whole of Australia. Shame Fredor isn’t here.........
Aussie Hippocrates they whinged their t*ts off when of the England bowlers cleaned some mud off the ball,which is allowed, and now Bancroft is on camera putting something down his bollacks,dirty cheating convicts should be hanged,but nice people on the whole
Could not believe what I was seeing blatantly cheating wtf we're they thinking .. Makes you wonder how they made the ball reverse swing in the ashes doesn't it.
I wouldn't care but the Useless Aussies lost by a massive margin...322 runs...despite their cynical cheating
Smith banned for 1 game. Seems lenient for something that was pre-meditated. He even didn't bother to do it himself instead getting one of team mates to do it. It's one hing having brain fart and doing it inheat of moment, another to plan it at lunch ffs Glad they went and got stuffed.
What a ****ing joke. Only three people knew. Small “group”. Lehmann didn’t know but did call the 12th man for a bit craic. He clearly wasn’t telling Bancroft to hide it in his pants... To be honest, Sutherland has to go.
I don't think anyone believes Sutherland, Smith ****ed up when he went in front of the media and admitted that a "Leadership Group" were involved in the decision, this just looks like damage limitation rather than a real effort to get to the heart of the issues, if anything Sutherland has managed to ensure that this will carry on rather than deal with it and get beyond this.
He has just made an absolute balls up of the whole thing. The chance was there to make a stand and restore some faith in Cricket Australia as an organisation. It was actually an opportunity to get everyone behind them. Now the public are going to be sat there thinking "they are treating us like a bunch of thickos". If you are Hazelwood or Starc, you're sat thinking there is no real punishment for bending the rules, bullet dodged. The culture will never change if those at the top are simply looking to limit damage rather than tackling the issue head on. I understand though it can be difficult if people are just going to sit and lie. If those three just sit there and say "yep this was the group we were talking about, no one else was involved" and Peter Handscombe/Lehmann are happy to lie and say "nope he never told me to tell Bancroft to hide it in his pants, he was simply enquiring about what flavour drink I thought they like taken out", then what can they do. I just think CA and Sutherland could have said we have listened to your reasoning and we just don't believe you. It doesn't stack up and we are removing you from the tour until such a time we are satisfied. It would have made them feel a little more pressured. I think the reality is they are looking to limit the damage to the team and putting performance ahead of integrity. People won't just blindly accept it.
From BBC website Captain Steve Smith and vice-skipper David Warner have been banned for a year by Cricket Australia over their recent ball-tampering in South Africa. Cameron Bancroft, who carried out the cheating, was given a nine-month ban. The three had already been sent home from Australia's tour - before a fourth Test begins on Friday - amid widespread condemnation stretching beyond sport. Australia's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull had said the affair "bitterly disappointed the whole nation". Smith, 28, and Bancroft, 25, have also been suspended from captaining Australia for least the next two years. Warner, 31, will not be considered for "any team leadership positions in the future", Cricket Australia said. Not sure why Smith is allowed to be considered for future Captaincy - the position should carry the ultimate responsibility and he's shown a shocking lack of that, together with integrity, ethics etc Whilst it's good to see Cricket Australia taking a hard line, maybe I'm being cynical in thinking it was an easier decision when the next two test series are against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, followed by India and Sri Lanka Wonder if the same would have happened with an Ashes series looming...
I think the bans are fair enough, but not dealing with the overall picture, i.e. the obvious involvement of others and the coach has the potential to change nothing in terms of culture. The schedule undoubtedly has played a part in the decision making too but there is an element of pure luck to that. Smith being considered for a leadership role again is comical. It would be absolute disgrace to cricket. CA seems unwilling to answer the pertinent questions or use the relevant phrases. 1. Why did Lehmann send Handscombe out onto the field to speak to Bancroft, and why did that conversation send Bancroft into a panic which saw him hide the evidence. What was that message? 2. Why did Smith allude to the leadership group, only for it then to be asserted that it only involved Warner him and Bancroft on further questioning? 3. Why are the veering away from using the word cheating despite that obviously being the case Its leaving a bad taste and the lack of transparency is hurting their reputation and credibility. They are missing the opportunity to do something really positive for me in favour of damage limitation. This won't go away because they haven't dealt with it in an acceptable fashion.
Think your post including Michael Vaughan's tweet - sums it up perfectly Cannot for the life of me believe they were the only three involved and that Lehman had no knowledge
Whilst they have taken action I don't think you have to be much of a cynic to consider how convenient that Smith and Warner will both be available for next years world cup in England, at least they will get a warm welcome, as for Smith and future captaincy that's a joke, this has just been the culmination of his appalling leadership, Lehman should have been canned as well irrespective of what he did or didn't know, his silence and lack of media duties at this time is again telling to the cynic in me, whatever he knew he should have been out there when Smith sat in front of the media and announced that they were cheats. We know footballers will dive and play act to gain advantage but the Aussies have set themselves up on some moral highground of their own making and then behaved like a right bunch of bastards, I feel for all the Australians that have supported this bunch of ****s, they deserved better.
Punishment does not go far enough for me,Smith and Bancroft should never captain their country again and Warner should never play for the Aussies again,horrible t**t
Sutherland has finally addressed 2 of my 3 queries. Whether he has done this out of transparency or just realising his **** up yesterday so covering his cover up, who knows. That is the danger of not being up front. Supposedly Lehmann sent on the 12th man to ask what the **** was going on? That being the case I think it is reasonable to think he didn't know. Why this was hidden until now is baffling. Sutherland basically ****ed Lehmann with silence. Why didn't Lehmann address the media himself I'll never know. It has made everyone suspicious and led to him being vilified. That stigma of "is that true" will stick for some which is sad. It also doesn't detract from the fact that as coach he doesn't appear to have had control over the behaviour of his players. He has either put too much trust in them or his own judgement calls have led to this culture developing. Either way its damaged him as a coach. He has finally, somewhat anyway, conceded cheating is the correct description also. It was weird he didn't want to address that and it added to the cover up feeling everyone was left with. It appears this leadership group question is just being avoided with no viable answer given.
