England All Out for 58

Slightly OTT

The very basic difference is that it is against the laws of the game to tamper with the ball as Smith, Bancroft and co were doing.

It was completely within the laws of the game to bowl fast, aggressively.

You ever watch the WI bowl in the late 70s?

Originally posted by @blood-on-the-tracks
Our 12th man, 'the weather' is playing a blinder!

It ain't good, but these tours are organised simply for ££££, no proper preparation. Similarly we need to reschedule the summer cricket season if we want to prepare young players properly for Test cricket.

Whole new argument. Not a massive horse racing fan, but I can recognise the class o ...[text shortened]... onnie O'Sullivan has decided to 'turn up'. Saw him in Preston a month ago, and he was electric.

He has won 5 ranking tournaments this season 😉

Let's he he turns up for the WC in 3 weeks time

Snooker needs a firing O'Sullivan at the moment

Originally posted by @radioactive69
The pommies might be bad but at least they're not cheats. Smith, Bancroft, and Lehmann have to go.

For once I'm ashamed of being an Aussie. Get rid of these cheats !!!

What I'd like to know is how long has the cheating been going on?
Is it just the Aussies who have been cheating ?
Been away for a while but I heard somewhere that ball tampering has been going on for a while.
Trouble is like in all professional sports at the highest level -there's too much at stake financially and winning by cheating equals big money.

You do realise that the opposition captain - Faf du Plessis, has been caught twice for ball tampering. And got suspended for a game. Philander - he’s been caught too. Got fined.
Smith, Warner and Bancroft get 1 year, 1year and 9 months.
Massive overreaction.
Strip them of the captaincy. Ban them for a few games and the IPL. But the vitriol thrown at them for a crime that gets committed virtually every game and is deemed a lesser offence than swearing by the ICC is astonishing.

That would be the Aussie defence, Bob

The huge difference is that the Aussie cheats took a piece of sandpaper out , in the pocket of a junior player, to significantly alter the surface of the ball.

Faf, and any others that I know of, have used fingernails, spit after sucking sugary sweets etc.

You not seeing the difference?

And can you tell me why Smith and co decided to turn on the waterworks at the press conference?

Because they got caught?

Originally posted by @blood-on-the-tracks
That would be the Aussie defence, Bob

The huge difference is that the Aussie cheats took a piece of sandpaper out , in the pocket of a junior player, to significantly alter the surface of the ball.

Faf, and any others that I know of, have used fingernails, spit after sucking sugary sweets etc.

You not seeing the difference?

And c ...[text shortened]... th and co decided to turn on the waterworks at the press conference?

Because they got caught?

Ball Tampering is Ball Tampering.
How it’s done is irrelevant.
The law is nothing artificial, and no fingernails.

It’s like saying that murder by strangulation is less of an offence than murder by gunshot.

Both murder. Same penalty should apply.

But, the difference was the hyperbolic sanctimony in the reaction to it happening.
Admittedly, many Australians bring this sort of thing on themselves with their arrogance and holier than thou BS (including one particular poster here).

But the ICC sanction of 1 game - which was applied, and the humiliation of losing the captaincy and vice captaincy was in keeping with the established standard punishment for this offence previously Across the cricketing world. 1 year ? Please.

As for the crying - Emotional I guess. The stoic “stiff upper lip” type has been eroded out of western society for a few years now. It’s okay for men to show their emotional side. I’ve seen blokes cry for less....

Originally posted by @blood-on-the-tracks
That would be the Aussie defence, Bob

The huge difference is that the Aussie cheats took a piece of sandpaper out , in the pocket of a junior player, to significantly alter the surface of the ball.

Faf, and any others that I know of, have used fingernails, spit after sucking sugary sweets etc.

You not seeing the difference?

And c ...[text shortened]... th and co decided to turn on the waterworks at the press conference?

Because they got caught?

Tyoical Pommie hypocrisy. Always want the Aussies to be treated worse than any other country in cricket, and themselves better. I bet if it'd been KP being caught, your tune would've been the complete opposite.

Oh, you're the one equating ball tampering to the body line series.

How am I bring 'hypocritical'?

If any England player was doing what Smith, Bancroft and the rest of this grubby band were doing, I would be happy for them to have been banned from Tests for life.

KP, by the way, notwithstanding his colourful image, was one of the most honourable players I have watched. Always walked, never disputed decisions

Another factor in the argument is that Australia are successful.
If it had been Bangladesh or Zimbabwe it might have been a different story