Australia Cricket scandal
Higgins
GermanyPosts: 16,619MI6 Agent
I am reading about the recent Cricket ball scandal.
Can someone explain people from non-cricket country, what exactly the scam was?
If I understand correctly, players are trying to keep one side of the ball "polished" and the other side as rough as possible to enable the ball to fly a curve.
The Australian captain was caught for manipulating the ball with tape , but I don't understand what the tape should do?
And wasn't it a bit obvious grabbing in the front of his pants while several cameras where rolling?
What other methods are used to "optimize" the balls legally and half-legal?
Thanks in advance!
Can someone explain people from non-cricket country, what exactly the scam was?
If I understand correctly, players are trying to keep one side of the ball "polished" and the other side as rough as possible to enable the ball to fly a curve.
The Australian captain was caught for manipulating the ball with tape , but I don't understand what the tape should do?
And wasn't it a bit obvious grabbing in the front of his pants while several cameras where rolling?
What other methods are used to "optimize" the balls legally and half-legal?
Thanks in advance!
President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Comments
In essence - you're facing a guy bowling a ball at you at circa 90mph. If it's straight & doesn't deviate much, then you can line yourself up to the ball & almost predict what's required dependent upon where the ball pitches on the wicket. When the ball swings around at that pace, life becomes extremely difficult - and that is where the drive to alter the condition of the ball comes from.
By roughing up one side of the ball & shining up the other you alter the drag of the ball through the air, enabling the ball to move or swing through it's course from delivery.
Historically there have been cases of bottle tops being used to scuff the ball, digging finger nails in to the ball, using trouser zippers, throwing the ball purposely in to rough areas of grass to take the sheen off one side etc etc. Sandpaper or abrasive tape as used here will of course serve to aid the deterioration of one side of the ball. On the other side of the ball, players have sprayed WD40 on to their trousers to facilitate a shine, sucked on sugary sweets to produce decent saliva that can then be put on the ball to help shine it up etc etc.
What these guys have done is out & out cheating and I have zero sympathy for any of them tbh. I actually think the Aussies are covering much more up, as there is absolutely zero chance that the coach of the side (Lehmann) didn't know what was going on & imo he's got away with blatant cheating too.
Hope this helps a bit - it's difficult to explain in words rather than visually.
Cheers, Steve
What happened was that one player (not the captain) had a bit of tape in his pocket and rubbed the the sticky side onto the pitch to essentially create home made sandpaper. Now with this the aim was to “rough up” one side of the ball so that, like you said, to make one side tougher than the other so that the ball will swing - which is when the ball, due to the air moving faster over the smooth side than the rough side, moves not in a straight line when bowled but curves a touch towards or away from the batsman. So you pretty much understand it already.
So while the captain wasn’t the one who was directly doing the tampering with the tape, apparently it was discussed by a few players and “approved” by the captain in a break before everything came to light on the field.
And it was just announced that the captain, vice (our two best batsman) and the player who had the tape have been banned from the national side by Cricket Australia for 12 months.
So, he was grinding the side of the ball while the ball was in his hand and then he placed the hand into his pocket?
Is it common, that people put their hands in the pocket - often with the ball which screams manipulation?
Is it also common in cricket, that players put something or grab under their pants (which looks obvious and disgusting anyhow)?
I had the impression, that he placed the ball next to his d*ck at some point of time.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Without a bit of ball tampering.
Cheating is cheating, all involved should be banned
From the sport.
Wouldn't sandpaper on a sticky tape have been much more efficient?
Is someone checking the ball for damage from fingernails etc. during the matches?
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
It seems that the referees asked the player because something suspicious was going on.
He presented them a black sunglasses bag as an explanation which the referees approved.
Were the referees overruled during the match after video evidence?
Was the match finished or suspended after the Aussies have been caught cheating?
Sorry, so many questions.....
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
The umpires aren’t specifically looking for tampering during the innings but they will check it occasionally and if it’s too damaged with normal wear and tear they will order a “new ball” which is exactly what it sounds like, a new ball is brought out to use and the old one is taken off. This was apparently another reason why the Aussies were trying to scuff up the other ball, so that they would get a new ball ordered - the new ball which is obviously shinier so it will deviate more when bowled, making it more difficult for the batsmen.
Sunglasses cloth wise, during the session, one of the cameras around the picked up the player with the tape in his hand and made a big deal out of zooming in and getting all angles etc, the player saw this on the big screen in the ground so before he was called over to explain to the umpires, he stupidly stuck the tape down the front of his pants (cameras were on him already, not sure why he thought he could get away with hiding it). So when he talked to the umpires and asked what was in his pocket, he pulled out the only thing that was in there, the glasses cloth. The test match finished pretty soon after that (early the next day) so all the investigations were still happening at that stage.
The ridiculous thing is, during and after the tampering or attempted tampering, the Aussies still didnt bowl any better and ended up losing the test.
Anyway if it was sandpaper, now that I think about it, a trip to the hardware store pre game probably wasn’t even necessary as sandpaper is probably carried in a few kit bags for bat maintanance.
That 12 month ban also covers the World Cup, so it may be a bit hard for Australia to back up their 2015 win without two of the world’s best batsmen. They’ve both also had their 2018 IPL contracts torn up (and they were both captains of their teams) and they were some of the largest contracts at around $2.5mil AUD a piece. They’ll also lose most if not all of their big $$ sponsors, their Cricket Australia yearly salary and the 12 months of lost match fees...it’s going to be an expensive mistake for both of them.
The moment we saw Cameron Bancroft rubbing the ball and then immediately put something in this pocket everyone in the ground knew that he had done something dodgy and there was an instant chorus of boos. Then we saw the close-up of him hiding the yellow object in his underpants and it was clear exactly what had happened.
I was extremely surprised that the Australians were desperate enough to resort to ball tampering, even though they were clearly behind in the match. Obviously from a cricketing point of view it was very disappointing to see such a blatant display of cheating on the field, but it was certainly an intriguing and dare I say entertaining thing to watch unfold live before my very eyes.
The punishments are quite harsh in my opinion, although I can understand where Cricket Australia is coming from. Hopefully it will help discourage players from doing it again in future. I've enjoyed this SA vs Australia test series, although it now has a bit a really bitter flavour to it. It will be interesting to see how the 4th test in Johannesburg goes with Australia missing their two best batsmen and no doubt with their morale very low. I hope that the rest of the team find the determination to put up a good fight, but not quite enough to beat South Africa.
Dont watch the game myself but always found the ball tampering aspect interesting so good to hear some explanations
With Women's beach volleyball !
Tampered with my balls watching the odd game now & again though! ;%
Almost as boring as golf...almost X-(
Happily reaped the glory . A cheat is a cheat, whether it's cricket, bridge or a footballer punching a ball
In to a net for a goal.
Wow
That’s incredibly sexist...
And I always thought it was 'No woman, no cry'.