Cricket

[Black Orchid]

"We initially just saw that he had something in his hand and he put it in his pocket, but we didn't know what it was," Naicker said.

"It was only when he later panicked and put it in his underpants that we got sight of the yellow tape."

After the images of Bancroft putting something in his pocket appeared on the big screen at the ground, umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth called the player over.

He produced a black piece of cloth used to clean sunglasses from his pocket and the umpires were, at the time, satisfied.
Naicker believes that had Bancroft kept the piece of yellow tape in his pocket and still produced the black cloth for the umpires, giving him the opportunity to dispose of the tape later, nobody would be the wiser.

"The moment he tried to dispose of it in his pants, we knew that this was a major incident. Until then, we were not sure what we were looking at."

Naicker says they broadcast the footage of him rubbing the ball with the then unknown object almost immediately after the incident.

"[Bancroft] probably saw it two minutes after it happened and very smartly our cameraman focused on the coaching staff and we saw the coach [Darren Lehmann] get on the walkie-talkie to the player down on the field [Peter Handscomb], who ran on to speak with Bancroft. It was then he panicked.

"

It probably happens all the time, and worse, but shoving it down his pants was obviously going to draw suspicion. Surely?

Turn the cameras away I am going to have a quick grope?

[Rorschach]

There was the suggestion this morning that Steve Smith made up the story about the senior players discussing the 'cheat' just to take the heat off Cameron Bancroft and that the discussion/meeting never happened.

If that is the truth that was a bad decision also.

Personally I think Warner was the main instigator and Smith just a weak Captain. I could be wrong.

[The Mechanic]

I had to Laugh...

the only person in australia who is not unhappy about all of this is Trevor Chapel..

he says..

"At least im not the most hated man in Cricket anymore"

how many years has he been waiting?

like 40? ... lol

[Neferti]

I realised that tampering with the ball is "illegal" but I had no idea why. Here is an article explaining "swing" of the ball. With illustrations of how "ball tampering favours the bowlers". Interesting.

You’ve no doubt seen players rubbing the ball furiously on their trousers for years. They will always rub the same side of the ball on their pants in an effort to make half of it shiny, while one side is neglected so it remains rough.

Players will also rub saliva on the shiny side of the ball to help with that process. These acts are entirely legal and help bowlers swing the ball — that is, make the ball move one way in the air so it’s more difficult for batsmen to hit.

When one side of the ball is shiny and one is rough, the ball will swing towards the rough side because air passes quicker over the smooth side.

This is how bowlers try and gain an advantage over batsmen when the ball is brand new. However, after a period of time (roughly 15 overs, let’s say), the ball becomes older and generally stops swinging. It’s now the fielding team needs to find another way to get the ball to move in the air and generally this involves what we call reverse swing.

Reverse swing is when the ball swings towards the shiny side rather than away from it. No one truly understands the exact science behind the dark art, but teams will try and rough up the non-shiny side of the leather even more to get the ball to swing the other way.

Players will often do this by deliberately throwing the ball into the pitch when returning it to the wicket keeper or, as we’ve seen in Cape Town, by other means that aren’t entirely legal.

You can spit on the ball, rub it with your hands and clothes, but you can’t use a foreign object to alter the condition of the ball.

When Cameron Bancroft used a piece of tape to pick up granules of soil and rub that onto the ball — in effect, turning it into sandpaper — he was cheating.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/wh ... c012032fd1

[sprintcyclist]

I had to Laugh...

the only person in australia who is not unhappy about all of this is Trevor Chapel..

he says..

"At least im not the most hated man in Cricket anymore"

how many years has he been waiting?

like 40? ... lol

I am unhappy about it all because we got caught AND we lost AND almost noone will support our captain in his hour of need.

I find that pretty poor

[Neferti]

I am unhappy about it all because we got caught AND we lost AND almost noone will support our captain in his hour of need.

I find that pretty poor

I feel your pain, Sprint. However ....

When Cameron Bancroft used a piece of tape to pick up granules of soil and rub that onto the ball — in effect, turning it into sandpaper — he was cheating.

Cameron should have been more "discrete" when rubbing the ball in his pants ... doesn't he know that they have CCTV (close up) at these events? He was sprung!

[Black Orchid]

He didn't get sprung until he disposed of the sandpaper down the front of his pants. Sticking your hand down the front of your pants attracts attention. It's like a huge DUHHH moment.

[Neferti]

He didn't get sprung until he disposed of the sandpaper down the front of his pants. Sticking your hand down the front of your pants attracts attention. It's like a huge DUHHH moment.

Like I thought when I saw the picture ... was he adjusting the "box" or playing pocket billiards?

[The Mechanic]

interesting reading..

Cricket Australia is sick of David Warner’s b******t and may never welcome him back

THE question is no longer whether David Warner deserves to be banned. It is whether he deserves to come back.

Warner is set to face a lengthy ban for his role as the prime architect of the ball tampering affair and it will be a sentence well deserved.

When that bans ends two questions will need to be answered ... “does he still want to play for them?’’ and “do they really want him back?’’

Both are vexed issues.

Cricket Australia are all but finished with David Warner.
Steve Smith has these challenges as well but for some reason, for all of his squabbles with his senior teammates he threw under a bus, there is a feeling he will slip back into the national team somewhere, perhaps playing the senior professional role Ricky Ponting performed after he stood down as captain but continued to play.

But Warner’s future is more complex.

When Warner was made vice-captain of his country one of the prime reasons for his elevation was the fear that if he missed out on the job he could potentially be a totally disruptive influence on the side.

Better to have him inside the tent firing the bullets into the distance than the other way round, they thought.

It was flawed logic by the selectors and the board and Australia now confronts the scenario it dreaded ... Warner being banned for a long time then returning as an isolated, potentially angry man to a team trying to create a new image.

If Warner did play another Test it would not be as a senior leader but as a relic of a stained era and you wonder how he would gel with a team trying to move on from the mess he helped create.

The wounds from this issue will be deep and long-lasting.

Players and coaches have turned against each other.

Long term friendships are being smashed like a dropped glasses on a bar room floor.

When Warner is banned there will not be a single tear shed in the offices of Cricket Australia where many of the high ranking staff cannot stand him.


David Warner in a heated exchange with a fan in Cape Town. Picture: Fox Sports
And they have never forgotten the way he taunted Cricket Australia during the pay dispute, showing a cringing lack of appreciation for what they had done for him and how they had tolerated his excesses.

CA officials have also had enough of the bluff and bullshit around Warner’s public image.

Last summer he had a press conference claiming how disappointed he was in Faf du Plessis’s ball tampering and how disappointed he would be if it ever happened in the Australian side.

A year later he is doing the deed himself.

One minute he is being portrayed as The Reverend with a moral compass somewhere between Mother Teresa and the Pope.

David Warner is restrained by teammates during the second Test.
The next he is bombarding Quentin de Kock with offensive sledges until the South African finally cracks and goes below the belt.

Cricket fans don’t mind rebels and they don’t mind do-gooders but they do struggle to accept it when they come in the one self-righteous, flip-flopping, two-toned package.

Journalists who wrote stories about Warner being The Reverend became laughing stocks among players who would say things like “so you really think he has changed, do you?’’

Cricket Australia knew Warner’s style well when they made him vice-captain.

Sometimes in life you get what you deserve.

[sprintcyclist]

.............But isn’t anyone prepared to stand with Steve Smith, or at least sympathise with him?

This is a 28-year-old man who has only ever wanted to win games of cricket for his country and in the middle of one of his most heated battles appears to have made an error in judgment — and didn’t have anyone nearby offering better advice.

And what he’s accused of doing, according to cricketers everywhere, is something that is certainly not uncommon in the sport.

“Cheating and cricket have always walked together, hand-in-hand, breaking into the occasional dance, game of hopscotch or just an old fashioned skip in unison,” wrote former Aussie ODI player Brett Geeves in a column for Fox Sports Australia.

“You are all of delusional, blind and foolish if you think this most recent act of ‘cheating’, ‘ball tampering’, ‘line breaking’, ‘spirit ruining’, ‘career suicide for Smith, (coach Darren) Lehmann, and the leadership group’- or whatever words you choose to spew from atop your high horse — is not a common happening in cricket all over the world. Open your eyes, please!”


Former English champ Andrew Flintoff took issue with the convenient pot-shotting. “Although Smith and co are indefensible there’s plenty of hypocrisy knocking about on social media today,” Flintoff tweeted.


So did former Test bowler Derek Pringle: “Aussies gone down in a heap of poetic justice,” he tweeted. “(But) still think reaction to ball tampering (over-the-top) though.”

Even former South African first-class cricketer Davy Jacobs thought the reaction was excessive. “The Aussies cheated, yes, its disgraceful,” he tweeted. “But yo man, easy on the judgments. People do stupid things sometimes, at all levels. Ban/fine/fire those involved, move on. Life is short, relax. Play with your kids, call your dad, go for dinner with your family. Seriously.”................

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/cri ... 3afbd3781f