I reckon they will need at least 350. Pitch isn’t playing a lot of tricks as of yet.
We simply can’t bat and I believe Paine may have a broken finger
I haven’t liked the Australian team for about 20 years, and that probably won’t change for at least another 5.
Just don’t see a likeable team that I want to associate myself with.
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Hahahaha. But, but, but…someone called Warner’s wife a naughty name and they’re the bad guys!
Deliberate, premeditated ball tampering - which this appears to be - should result in an automatic life ban. It is far worse than any sledge or other ‘spirit of the game’ contravention - it is flat out cheating.
Disgraceful and reprehensible. Planned at lunch time by the ‘leadership team’. Throw the book at them.
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Seriously should be a few bans handed out.
I’m embarrassed to say I follow that team tonight
Smith admits being complicit…probably Warner and Lyon too (as members of the players’ leadership group?)…probably all the players really.
What a disastrous PR event this test series has become…This should cost them all a pretty penny in fines/suspensions/lost endorsements.
Unbelievable, unfathomable, and unforgivable.
The fact that the players willingly conceived of and carried out this idea suggests the penalty rating (level 2 offence) is far too low, as the potential rewards from this cheating outweigh the potential downside in the minds of the players. This should be a level 4 offence (i.e. have the potential to result in life bans).
Australia’s cricketing reputation in the toilet this morning. Smith needs to be removed from the captaincy. Immediately.
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Any player involved in devising this plan need to be suspended for a few matches. After that they can come back as players but not as leaders as they lack the required character and judgement. Smith is finished as captain.
I hope Starc or Hazlewood are not involved but how could it not involve the bowlers who would benefit most from the plan?
What about the rest of the team who knew about the plan but didn’t stop it?
We are now officially a cheating nation.
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It’s a class 2 offence under ICC code, and the maximum penalty is 1 test match + 100% match fee. It’s an absurdly lenient result for a deliberate and coordinated effort to cheat.
CA need to remove Smith as captain within the next 24 hours, and should impose bans well over and above what the ICC will, to salvage some reputation and send a message. I doubt they’ll do the latter, though.
Smith, Bancroft and the rest of the “leadership group” can’t play in the next Test and maybe the next series. CA needs to be firm and swift.
You need to take a chill pill dude. You wanted them to have a life ban two posts ago.
It is highly embarrassing, they will be penalised but stop going over the top. You don’t think Faf, who was suspended for ball tampering, didn’t deliberately plan to do it? What about when the Poms did it and didn’t even get a fine?
Yes i think it is terrible but your hyperbole is way over the top.
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My comment about automatic life ban was perhaps a tad rash (and borne out of frustration and shame), but the ICC maximum (level 2 offence) punishment of 1 match is absurdly lenient by any measure given what’s transpired. It should be a level 4 offence, pursuant to which they’d get 5 matches or more.
The fact it happens frequently as you point out supports my view that the penalty is far too lenient. I suspect players would be far more hesitant to ball tamper if they’re looking at 5+ matches on the sidelines, rather than a maximum of 1.
I think a 1st offence should be 1 match, a 2nd offence 3 matches, a 3rd offence 2 series.
The issue that is faced is what penalties applies to whom. Bancroft did the action so he will cop it bad, Smith hatched the plan but didn’t do it so not sure how they will see it (I suspect a ban of 1 match as well as Bancroft). Warner and Lyon is an unknown as we have no idea if they seriously got involved. By the sound of it, it was discussed in the rooms but we have no direct reference to who said what and whether anyone dissented (which I really, really hope happened).
This will give the Aussies one of the biggest black eyes for some time. It is highly embarrassing and a disastrous set of circumstances.
I am shocked they even thought to do it.
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Excellent. No Bancroft for us, no Vernon or Faf for them!!
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So Warner and Smith hatched this “plan” and got their most expendable player to perform the deed.
Pathetic.
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I’m just glad nobody crossed the line with Australia.
As if Lehman didn’t know as well.
Must say I’m very surprised at Smiths part in it. Didn’t seem that type of person. Guys like Warner, Lyon, Lehmann I can totally see devising the plan.
If they thought the crowd abuse was bad before this…
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It’s an interesting philosophical discussion to have as to what the penalty should be, and what act it’s referable to. Clearly, some ball tampering incidents are worse than others - the player who, in a 3-second moment of stupidity, grabs some hair gel off his head to help shine the ball, is in my mind clearly less culpable than a whole team hatching a premeditated plan to bring a foreign object onto the field to cut up the rough side of the ball.
I don’t know why you’d want to give players second chances for ball tampering - it’s cheating and every international cricketer knows exactly what the rules are in this respect - so 3 matches for a second offence would be too light for me.
Whatever the case, penalties with respect to contraventions of the game’s code should be formed so as to accommodate varying degrees of severity, in the same way crimes are (i.e. assault can get 5 years in prison or whatever, but clearly assaults vary as to severity). A 1-match maximum for ball tampering is ridiculous and, evidently, isn’t performing its deterrent function.
It doesn’t say Warner at all, Smith said it was discussed by the leadership team and then the team. So Warner may have said not to do it for all you know.
Let’s wait for the hearing that will come to find out who said what.