jb03 said:
Sorry, thought I posted it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8HCO-no4Ps
Can't believe that reporter got out in one piece.
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Sorry, thought I posted it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8HCO-no4Ps
Can't believe that reporter got out in one piece.
Nomorewaiting said:
The tragedy of Steve Smith’s fall from grace
Dumped Australian captain Steve Smith. Picture: Phil Hillyard
Dumped Australian captain Steve Smith. Picture: Phil Hillyard
Steve Smith arrives at Cape Town International Airport to depart to Johannesburg Picture: AP.
Steve Smith arrives at Cape Town International Airport to depart to Johannesburg Picture: AP.
12
The Australian
10:31AM March 28, 2018
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Peter Lalor
Senior Sports Writer
@plalor
They’ll be taking Steve Smith’s faces off the cereal packets. Removing his image from the poles and buildings as if to signal the regime change. He’s fallen.
It’s heartbreaking — even if he does deserve everything that’s coming his way, although I suspect he doesn’t deserve all of it. This pile-on is unseemly but speaks volumes. I want to hug him and say it will be all right but I know it won’t.
The ceiling was sagging in the dressing room long before he entered it. The roof had been leaking for years. Nobody was interested in the rising damp because there was so much sunshine. Nobody noticed how low they had to stoop.
And then it caved in. And every indiscretion and negligence of past and current tenants fell on the head of Smith and whoever was with him that lunchtime on day three at Cape Town.
David Warner was certainly one. There’s a sense that every time there’s a bin fire in cricket the opener has been seen wandering from the scene with a pocketbook of matches, an empty can of petrol and a ‘wasn’t me’ shrug.
read more
Warner could lose millionsNick Tabakoff
Transcript of Sutherland address
Ball’s rough treatmentWayne Smith, Eric Johnson
It’s not all him. The contempt has been building for years. Opposition players have danced a jig of delight that this has caught up with the Australians. They aren’t holding back in public and in private.
The blame game has started in Australian cricket’s inner circle. They’re under siege and turning on each other. Cameron Bancroft is collateral damage. A man in his eighth Test he knew nothing but the environment he walked into. He was stupid and he deserves punishment but the fact the match referee didn’t even see fit to suspend him for a game suggests something. He says he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time”. He was, Nuremberg style, just following orders.
Warner, the ball maintenance man, will argue that he has just been doing his job. The bowlers benefit from it. The team benefited from it. The coach, well, the coach sets the agenda. He’s not exactly the retiring type.
Smith’s clumsy attempt to protect the identity of his co-conspirator(s) had an unfortunate side-effect. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were rightly upset and wanted it corrected.
Back to Smith because I can’t shake the sadness about his demise. Here was one of the most personable, least calculating, more talented and one of the more genuinely decent people to skipper the Australian team in recent decades.
That’s no knock on the others, but Smith has an openness, even naivety, that few of those men had.
Here was a man with no pretensions. An enthusiast. In Port Elizabeth he’d been out with his drone (the fad that’s keeping them occupied this tour) and he’d filmed a pod of dolphins swimming beyond the waves. It was spectacular footage and he couldn’t wait to show it, standing in his towel in the foyer of the team hotel, as excited as a kid with a new toy. Which he was.
Smith entered the highest office in Australian sport wearing shorts and thongs, opened the door and greeted all comers with a goofy grin.
And, boy, can he play. Gifted with natural talent but not on the scale of an AB de Villiers who has had his bat kissed by God, Smith worked and works and worked and works and grafted a goofy approach that has seen him achieve results in his career no batsman, Bradman aside, had.
The outrage is searing, crippling even. People are concerned for him. He cuts such a lonely, devastated figure in the corridors of the hotel. Most of the others have their families with them, for once he is flying solo.
It’s a mark of his character that he saw a bus headed for Bancroft, knew that it wasn’t right and attempted to throw himself in front of it. He knew he couldn’t completely protect the opener but he wanted to share his pain. How many would have done that? How much has it cost Smith?
Steve Smith celebrates scoring his century against England on the final day of the fourth Ashes cricket Test match at the MCG in December last year.
Steve Smith celebrates scoring his century against England on the final day of the fourth Ashes cricket Test match at the MCG in December last year.
If he’d kept quiet this could have been “managed”. Maybe if he had his time again he would. What sort of person voluntarily risks all they have achieved?
This time a few days back Smith had the world at his feet. He was the friendly face of Australia’s favourite sport. Indian franchises were willing to pay him the best part of $2.5 million to turn out for a month or so. Australia paid him around $2m just to play cricket. How good was life?
The ground that was at his feet has crumbled and Smith is plummeting, hitting a world at every plunge like the character in Emily Dickinson’s poem. There’s a funereal air around the Australian cricket team in Cape Town but there’s nobody sending flowers or notes of sympathy.
I want to understand what happened in the dressing room that lunch time. You might want to bury Smithy but it shouldn’t stop you taking the time to wonder how this god awful mess came about.
The pressures of captaining the Australian team are immense. Greg Chappell talked about the mental strain that led to the underarm moment that Trevor Chappell says has haunted him the rest of his life. Every time he enters a room there’s an announcement from the PA, “here is Trevor underarm Chappell, the man who brought disgrace on Australian cricket”. He’s almost an old man now but a moment in his youth, in another century, stalks him.
Steve Smith.
Steve Smith.
Captains go crazy with the strain. Most crack at some point. Sometimes it’s calamitous, other times just a little unsettling. Ricky Ponting turned on an England coach in unseemly scenes as the Ashes slipped away, he took a catch once and threw the ball into the turf as a World Cup slipped away. He did it because another fielder collided with him. Steve Smith was his name.
Allan Border is a simple man, an exception to life’s usual course in that he has grown less grumpy with age. He snapped regularly as skipper, said things to his teammates that he regretted, but it was his release valve. He blew up once and was briefly on strike over selection. Refusing to go with the team, yelling on the phone instead of playing.
Michael Clarke got himself into some dark places. His captaincy was hanging by a thread on the day Phillip Hughes died. He had gone off the reservation and Cricket Australia was considering disciplinary action against him.
In Joseph Conrad’s classic novel Lord Jim, Jim is a friendly young man who makes a critical bad decision in the heat of the moment. Unlike others who are possibly more culpable he faces the music, but the shame haunts him for the rest of his life.
Smith will be beating himself harder than anybody can beat him over this. He’s done something foolish and he’s paying for it like few before him. Politicians lie and cheat and stay in office unscathed. Everybody does something they are ashamed of.
The greatest shame is that moment of treachery is so out of character with everything else about Steve Smith.
Maybe I had him wrong, but I am pretty sure I don’t. He can’t remain as captain and he can’t play cricket for Australia again for some time, but he should not be exiled or excoriated forever.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/opinion/peter-lalor/the-tragedy-of-steve-smiths-fall-from-grace/news-story/1751adf4500ef142a960ada4ede7297c
jb03 said:
The poms have video of Bancroft putting sugar in his pocket in the rooms during the Ashes.
Search youtube with "bancroft sugar ashes".
One thing's for sure .. with all this fallout you would think that the ICC won't have to worry about the rules regarding ball tampering.
Who would dare do it now?
Who would dare do it now?
It’s not the ball tampering that’s got everyone except for the apologist s offside. It’s the fact that Smith & Warner decided to cheat. Conscious decision was made. It was premeditated cheating.
It’s what we hate Essendon for as well as the Soviets, Chinese and Lance Armstrong.
A premeditated decision by leadership to cheat in an attempt to gain advantage over everyone else.
Is ball tampering as big as Lance’s doping. Not really. But they stem from the same intent, thought process and decision.
And if Boof and the bowlers had no idea of what was going on, then Tex Walker is the best captain in the AFL.
It’s what we hate Essendon for as well as the Soviets, Chinese and Lance Armstrong.
A premeditated decision by leadership to cheat in an attempt to gain advantage over everyone else.
Is ball tampering as big as Lance’s doping. Not really. But they stem from the same intent, thought process and decision.
And if Boof and the bowlers had no idea of what was going on, then Tex Walker is the best captain in the AFL.
Punishment to Smith & Bancroft too harsh. Suspension from 4th test & public shame enough. Warner - a lifetime's too short..would have liked the rationale for his sanction to have expressly mentioned the numerous, persistent abuses of conduct. Coaches & mgt have failed this squad, & captain especially. Hope there'll be further review & action once group returns home. Sutherland needs to go too. He's as responsible for culture as anyone.
So true Baloo. Because sport is built on rules designed to make an even contest. But those rules are arbitrary. Why not rough the ball if you can shine it? Why not take chemicals for advantage? Why not play 19 players on the field - ie break any of the rules?
Because that broken rule invalidates the agreement between competitors. Otherwise its a freeforall.
And it stops being sport
The deliberate planned cheating is an admission that they are not competing.
Cheating or competing- you cant do both
Because that broken rule invalidates the agreement between competitors. Otherwise its a freeforall.
And it stops being sport
The deliberate planned cheating is an admission that they are not competing.
Cheating or competing- you cant do both
This is just the start. Malcolm Knox said it in the age - cricket worldwide needs a cleanout.
Its the same as lance armstrong except the UCI were too soft and crooked. The tour de france is a joke here in france
Its the same as lance armstrong except the UCI were too soft and crooked. The tour de france is a joke here in france
MD Jazz said:
They used sandpaper, they lied about it and tried to cover it up. In the contest of the sport its not a crazy penalty at all. IMO its as bad as an individual using banned drugs, obviously not as bad as the systemic cheating of Armstrong and Essendon.
Baloo said:
So previous ball tampering has purely been accidental or fortuitous? So faf was just sucking a Lolly and by accident got some of it on the ball? And it was an accident he rubbed it on his zip? And it’s been an accident when guys have picked the seam, stood on the ball etc? You think none of those actions were discussed or premeditated?
If smith doesn’t do that press conference things could be different and it may be judged in the same light as other incidents.
From CA:
“ Any consideration of future leadership would be conditional on acceptance by fans and the public, form and authority among the playing group. David Warner will not be considered for team leadership positions in the future.”
As I said earlier, they make their decisions to appease the baying public.
I wonder how CA are going to judge “acceptance by fans and the public”. A plebiscite? A ch9 phone poll?
“ Any consideration of future leadership would be conditional on acceptance by fans and the public, form and authority among the playing group. David Warner will not be considered for team leadership positions in the future.”
As I said earlier, they make their decisions to appease the baying public.
I wonder how CA are going to judge “acceptance by fans and the public”. A plebiscite? A ch9 phone poll?
Hearing Warner will go rogue.
Seeking lawyer(s).
Going down the path that there were others in the dressing rooms who knew.
Doesn't care who he takes down.
Warner should have got a bigger ban.
As I said re Smith, more concerned for him. Media saying that he has been sobbing uncontrollably.
Just heard a snippet from Lehman , that ' he has to improve, get better'. Fix the culture. Model ourselves on NZ.
He is Part of the problem & culture in AUS cricket.
I'm
Seeking lawyer(s).
Going down the path that there were others in the dressing rooms who knew.
Doesn't care who he takes down.
Warner should have got a bigger ban.
As I said re Smith, more concerned for him. Media saying that he has been sobbing uncontrollably.
Just heard a snippet from Lehman , that ' he has to improve, get better'. Fix the culture. Model ourselves on NZ.
He is Part of the problem & culture in AUS cricket.
I'm
MD Jazz said:
So we should accept cheating as part of the game?
No. Deal with it swiftly and significantly and show ‘faf’ that as Australians, we will not tolerate it. If they’re happy to be known as a nation that cheats (Hanse?) that’s up to them.
But not us.