Sports & Fitness Cheats

Steve Smith and his co conspirators should be sacked, then banned from international cricket for a year (or three) and fined $1Million each. Shameful, blatant cheating.

#sandpapergate

 

I haven't read the full story. Who knew what?

All I saw was Bancroft with paper and ball. I'd be happy to see him never return and same for anyone else that enabled it. Don't think life bans will happen however. Need to make sure this never happens again

 

Agree. Not acceptable at this level. Immediate removal from squad and banned for a certain amount of years for anyone involved.

 

I wish i could say i was surprised about (former captain) Michael Clarke's reaction to this... It say's volumes about how this could happen.

 

This has totally shocked me. Smith needs to be sacked as a minimum. The "leadership team" has shown no leadership whatsoever and need to be punished.

 

Firstly a positive - I applaud Smith for owning up to it, which is more than I can say for countries like India or South Africa when they've been in the wrong.
Now the bad - It's shocking, but not surprising. This is the most unlikeable Australian team for as long as I can remember.

I'd sack the man at the top who was previously charged and found guilty of racial vilification by the ICC, Darren Lehmann. Then I'd ban the captain, Steve Smith, for a year. The VC, Warner, to get 6 months and all the rest in the Leadership group along with bancroft 3 months. On top of that, all match payments from this series to be revoked and they aren't allowed to play in the Big Bash this year. That would be a very strong line in the sand, it would also give the team a chance to start fresh.

I'm sure that under normal circumstances Smith and Co. would never have thought about cheating like this, but things festered and morality can get blurred when your sole focus is on winning. The sporting fishbowl is too insular sometimes and how this came to pass that NOBODY in the leadership group said this wasn't a bad idea is truly astounding.

If Smith is still in the team come the next test match on Australian soil, I think he's going to get an almighty Booing.

 

This is on top of widespread match-fixing allegations. I gave up on this sport years ago.

 

Lehman has to go - he would have condoned this
Other countries have done similar but it doesn't mean we stoop to that garbage
I too have gone off the current Oz cricket team
They gob off all the time and can't take it when its given back
It's a team of millionaire sooks

 

Yes, full admission made. This is more than a moment of folly. It should and will be dealt with according to the rules.

Upon hearing the news after yesterday’s training, my 9 year old son was not impressed. We’re doing a Sri Lanka tour next month. I think we’ll get some questions from the juniors there.

I reckon the sponsors will soon say something.

 

at any level or any sport.

love how local radio stations and commentary making excuses for the team trying to soften the blow.. cant imagine if it was the pommies or indians or kiwis doing this, the tone would have not been the same. .especially if it was done against the aussies.

trace back all the footage,

ban all players coaching member involved.

all wins revoked.. i dont even know why there is still a 4 and 5 match against SA. why is cheating not an automatic disqualifcation + lose + punishment + Clawback wins ?

 

I agree that theoretically, they should forfeit the series. But sadly, sport is a commercial enterprise. There are seats to be filled, sponsors need the ad time they paid for etc. Seeing the captain was able to take the field AFTER the fact is a joke though.

 

I still cant believe , how they thought they could get away by doing this when the entire world would be watching you especially after what happened in the last game. And its also such a disrespect to the bowlers who have worked hard their entire life and play for the country. One of the best bowling attacks in the world does not need these gimmicks. How would they even show their face in the future in the dressing room. If Smith continues to be captain , i dont now how rest of the team would listen to him and trust him. If you loose a game , just get back to the drawing room and see how you can improve and work hard.

 

Way too harsh.

It is in the category of attempting to obtain an unfair advantage - something most international cricket teams try and some openly admit to (eg England 2005). The difference here is the open admission - most teams use the defence of deny, deny, deny.

It needs to penalised and the ICC one match suspension is probably a little light - but would take into account it is a first time offence.

Of course now the penalty by Cricket Australia will be harsher - but that is all about reputation rather than how bad the actual offence is.

In any case, sme changes to the culture of this unpleasant team is necessary anyway.

 

caught on camera,, no point denying isnt it ?

 

All those that knew and endorsed should be banned for life... will this happen, its highly unlikely. The prejudice that exists because cricket is the darling sport of Australia is ridiculous. It's pretty embarrassing that certain parts of the media are already trying to play this down.

 

Possibly... but it was pretty outrageous and certainly deserves some form of "never again" punishment . There's an opportunity here to set a real precedent and make it clear this isnt on.

Perhaps the suggestions from @The Gambler may be a more suitable place to start....

 

I'm really not sure how serious an offence I view this as - certainly not this harshly.

It is premeditated by not particularly calculated (like a salary cap breach in football or substituting a horse in racing, accepting bribes to lose) - it is more a spur of the moment embarrassing thing that probably wouldn't work anyway.

Fines and suspensions but not lengthy bans.

 

Don't think this was spur of the moment stuff
A fair bit of collusion seems to be involved. The Senior playing group nutted this out and sent the (newboy Bancroft ) to the Lions. Warner and Smith don't mind beating their chests about everything else but didn't have the balls to tamper with.

 

This was pretty bad, and as a mad aussie fan whose watched most of this series (its been great!), it does leave a bitter taste seeing it done. There are certainly cultural issues at play and leadership group/culture needs a good review. Its good that they're looking into it.

Nonetheless looking at the actual incident at hand, calls for 36 month+ bans from cricket entirely seem way over the top and largely emotional responses.

In cricket terms, trying to alter the shape/condition of the ball is part and parcel of the game. Every team does it in most innings (maybe not NZ against england given they could only last 20 overs!) and there's some artificial laws governing the extent with which you can do it. Aussies broke that and took it too far. The ICC have looked at it and given a whooping 1 match ban to the captain (Rabada almost copt two games for a gentle brush & existing demerit points).

Faf did this in 16' with a lozenger? It didn't look accidental at all. His still captaining SA and his half the player smith is. This won't define smith. Rabada's brush on smith shouldn't define him either (and its a shame that the aussies tried to throw him under the bus).

Lets remember the positives - we're watching one of the greatest ever batsmen to wear the baggy green in his prime. Likewise with Rabada, we may be watching the best pace bowler of his time (his 21/22, so its a bit early).

We're just in a media frenzied world where any misstep is grossly exaggerated. If it does, than thats a sign of how precious we're all becoming. Media driven over dramatisations.

Waugh, warne, etc, some of our greatest cricketers have done far worse and are community leaders today.

He didn't match fix, he didn't do drugs, he didn't hit anyone, he didn't bash a woman (rugby players), he just made a stupid call that bent the rules of cricket a bit too far. It is mind bogglingly stupid and the risk/benefit tradeoff assessment from the captain is nuts...using a piece of tape to get dirt on a ball in an attempt to change it so it may reverse swing more...lol, perhaps someone should drug test him/work out what on earth he was thinking. Its just so stupid.

Throwing smith under the bus for 12-36 months during his prime for this is beyond over-reacting. Its like giving a death sentence to a jaywalker. Lets treat him fairly and come up with an appropriate response (strip him of captaincy for a few tests, let him sit one out, do a massive review into team culture, etc).

Just my view. Or maybe ball tampering (pre-meditated or not) is actually worse than performance enhancing drugs, bashing people (stokes, his back for england!), etc, and i'm way off base!

 

Level 2 offence.