At times I think 'is this a bit of an overreaction?' Ball tampering is nothing new in this sport is it? But then the other side of me speaks louder given that it was pre-empted as opposed to impulsive and the dirty deed was shoved onto a relative rookie by the experienced pros. That really stinks of a cowardly act, not too dissimilar to the attitude displayed by Renault F1 chiefs telling Piquet Jnr to crash deliberately to disrupt the Singapore GP in favour of Fernando Alonso back in 2008.
Is it worse than the underarm bowl by Chappell in 1981? I only say that because I found myself in a youtube wormhole a couple of months back looking at old cricket Australia videos (was during the Ashes) and Richie Benaud's famous but controlled expression of disgust in light of that incident. What would he say about the current scandal?
The over reaction is those saying Smith should be banned for x amount of years or a life ban.
The Aussie public/media/Quantas will see to it that his captaincy gets moved along and the reputation of the team can be rebuilt. A reasonable ban and he will continue his career without the captaincy.
Lehman will go and that will be of no loss to the Aussies or the game at all. His silence on this has been pretty pitiful to be honest. He knew.
It will be interesting if Warner profits or loses from this because he's next in line but also right in the thick of the scandal. I dont think the Aussies can rebuild their image with him as captain.
Beyond those two though its difficult to see the next leader amongst them.
That video of Bancroft putting sugar in his pocket during the ashes looks pretty damning too. They've been doing this for a good while and like has already been said its the planning thats gone into this that makes it so bad.
Their unpopularity doesn't help. There's a lot of snidy cu*ts amongst them who give it out then whinge when they get it back.
« Last Edit: Mar 26, 2018 07:10:13 pm by fields of anny rd »
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