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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/clarke-puts-hand-up-to-play-with-young-test-team-as-leaders-banned-20180408-p4z8d8.html
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Former Australia captain Michael Clarke says he's willing to come out of retirement to help out the Test side ...
Clarke, who retired after losing the Ashes series in England three years ago, said he'd play for free and had messaged Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland but is yet to hear a response.
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"It's like getting back on a bike. I'm as fit and healthy as I've ever been. The time away has been great for my body.
"To be honest, I'm so nervous about the headline and how it's perceived," he said.
"But I can't just sit here and do nothing. I feel I owe the game too much."
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Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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Really, what use would we have for Clarke when we have Khawaja? |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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Considering bats, I was also reminded about the Ponting one-handed sweep for 6 in the World Cup final. A quick internet search did not reveal any video. (Cricket video seems to be harder to find than I expected.) In Ponting's case, my memory says it must have been off the middle of the bat. What I'd like to check is when exactly his hand came off the bat. I think it may have been after the impact of bat on ball, which of course would reduce its significance. There was an MLB case, however, in which a no-hand home run was struck: both hands were off the bat at the time of bat-ball impact. The photographic evidence of this may be available online. (There is also an explanation for how such a thing can possibly occur. I can explain if anyone's interested.)
Update: It seems it was Todd Frazier.
http://mlb.mlb.com/cutfour/article.jsp?content_id=32446002
It's not exactly easy to see when both hands come off the bat, although the slow-motion replay from a different angle helps. If it's in between frames, then we're out of luck. |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/flintoff-says-rest-of-australian-team-had-to-know-about-ball-tampering-20180410-p4z8nu.html
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Flintoff says other Australian players 'had to know' about ball tampering
Former England captain Andrew Flintoff claims suggestions Australia's ball-tampering scandal was limited to banned trio Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are 'nonsense'.
Flintoff said the one-year suspensions handed out by Cricket Australia to former captain Smith and former vice-captain Warner and the nine-month ban for Bancroft as overly-harsh.
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"I am struggling to think that not everyone (in the team) knew," Flintoff told the BBC.
"I might be completely wrong but you talk about it - you talk about how you're going to treat the ball. The ball in cricket is so important.
"To say that a bowler has got a ball in his hands, or anybody else in the field does not know that this ball has been tampered with is absolute nonsense.
"You talk and talk and talk about how you're going to look after this ball. To then say that other people didn't know; if that's the case I feel sorry for Mitchell Starc."
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It does not seem to be a particularly strong argument (independent of whether the conclusion may be true). There are many questionable assumptions in it.
On the other hand, the claim does seem to be self-condemning. It's hard to see how this argument could be claimed if the claimants' own experiences provided counterexamples. Vaughan and Flintoff, in making this argument, are therefore basically admitting that the whole of the England 2005 Ashes team were in on the team's ball tampering, not just a few. (Maybe this was already clear, so there was no point pretending otherwise. I don't know. Trescothick's autobiography is again the place to start looking.)
Note: Flintoff later is quoted as saying, "Some of them are in glass houses: don't be chucking your stones lads. We've done a few things which aren't particularly in the rules - not as bad as that - and it changes."
Flintoff is clearly not a Vaughan. I'd guess that this comment, like Mark Butcher's, was aimed in particular at Vaughan. (Butcher referred to "a former captain of mine".) |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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Last chance to watch:
'Caught out', Paul Kennedy documentary,
https://iview.abc.net.au/programs/caught-out/NS1861V001S00#playing
Some quotes and notes follow.
John Inverarity, as told by Gideon Haigh, on Smith's appointment:
"There is an argument for making Smith wait... just while he grows up a bit... This office, it drives them all mad."
Kim Hughes: "Don't tell me about pressure... I was becoming a person I didn't like... It's very, very lonely."
Merv Hughes: "There'd be a few people watching this interview that would be saying that if I said that the Australians were over the top I would be hypocritical... and so I'm never going to say the Australians were over the top. They play a good, aggressive, hard brand of cricket, and if other sides don't like it, that's their problem."
Smith failed English in Year 12.
Simon O'Donnell: "That comes about by pressure... That pressure has driven them to a decision that will change a lot of cricketers' careers..."
Peter Schofield: "... I had the same feeling as if ... someone had passed away, I'd lost an old friend..."
Gideon Haigh: "They are sort of man-children, aren't they? ... That's the system that we've created."
Michael Vaughan (on the Australian cricket team): "They are very self-righteous. They have been for a while."
[My comment: Pot. Kettle... This man seems completely delusional. ]
Simon O'Donnell (on Bancroft's actions compared with others'): "That's far different to me..."
[My comment: Simon, that's not what the rules say.]
Lehmann was accused of having two coaching methods: building up players, and excommunicating them.
Greg Dyer: "Culture comes from the top..."
John Buchanan: [waffle, waffle,...]
[My comment: the emperor has no clothes.]
James Sutherland & David Peever declined requests to be interviewed for the program. |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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Surrey coach keen on signing Australia's banned cricket stars
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/surrey-coach-keen-on-signing-australia-s-banned-cricket-stars-20180418-p4za7v.html
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Di Venuto was Australia's batting coach until 2016 and remains close to both Steve Smith and David Warner...
Cameron Bancroft ... had his contract with Somerset ripped up following the incident...
The trio are only permitted to play grade cricket in Australia, but their bans do not prevent them from playing in England, although it would require approval from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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Alec Stewart:
"I personally think the penalties ... are very, very harsh."
Waqar Younis:
"Ball tampering has always been a part of cricket... It's always been there... I feel that Australian Cricket Board was a little bit harsh. You know, we all look at the bats; we all look at the pitches, the size of the grounds. It's all ... around the batsmen, how we want to comfort the batsmen. How are you going to take this away or make it comfortable for the bowlers? Why aren't we looking at the cricket ball? ... there should be one cricket ball, only one cricket ball used all around the world..."
(video on cricinfo) |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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A. Wu wrote: | ...
Dyer's 1310-word letter to Peever, which was also sent to current and former ACA members and obtained by Fairfax Media, reaffirms the union's request to be part of a joint panel into the review of the CA board and management.
The ACA is concerned the review into team culture will unfairly point the finger at the players without identifying what it believes to be the "systemic causes of the tipping point that occurred in Cape Town".
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"[The review] must look at CA's focus on high performance and the desire to draw young players into managed pathways from an early age together with the consequences of a ‘One Team’ philosophy, considering whether, if unchallenged or ameliorated, these approaches may lead to a player’s encapsulation within the game and a lack of perspective and diversity of thought," Dyer wrote.
The ACA wants CA's reviews to be consistent with the International Cricket Council's planned review into player behaviour.
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There is also a belief the union is agitating for the removal of Howard, chief executive James Sutherland and senior CA executive Kevin Roberts.
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/union-fears-culture-crisis-will-be-blamed-on-players-20180420-p4zaqw.html
M. Knox wrote: | ...
But the Australian head coach’s daily WhatsApp agenda, come December, will read something like: ‘1. Defend team’s indefensible performance to the media. 2. Avoid getting thrown under the bus by James Sutherland and Pat Howard. 3. Throw balls for an extra hour at Usman Khawaja. 4. Attend various meetings. 5. Get iPad working. 6. Counsel Tim Paine. 7. Locate team bus, so as not to get thrown under it. 8. Fix team culture. 9. Get team winning.’
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/success-will-need-to-be-found-on-and-off-field-for-new-cricket-regime-20180420-p4zap0.html |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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Cricket Australia fails Crisis Management 101 in wake of cheating scandal
http://www.afr.com/opinion/cricket-australia-fails-crisis-management-101-20180328-h0y27c
C. Savage (Mar 28 2018, 11pm) wrote: | ...
The biggest blunder was to allow Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft to front the media and explain in detail what they had done, and why.
This is where Cricket Australia lost control for a couple of key days in managing this crisis. It was on the back foot, and scrambling to recover.
Cricket Australia did not have the right personnel on the ground in South Africa to take control, and to guide the response quickly and decisively.
The Australian team had been caught red-handed. Yes, a statement needed to be made about a "serious error of judgment", an apology delivered and details announced of a full investigation. The players should then have been shielded from the onslaught and a buffer created between those involved and the media. That did not happen. Big mistake.
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I am reminded though of Captain Louis, in the movie Casablanca, who indignantly uses the excuse that there is gambling under way at Rick's Café to order the place shut down. As he does so, a waiter sidles up to him and whispers: "Your winnings, sir."
Some leading football players carefully study opposition defenders so they can cheat by faking a foul and winning a penalty. World Cups have been won on such cheating. Yet the tickertape parades celebrate these "heroes".
A now-retired captain of a world-famous rugby team often ran out to play with a specific intent to "cheat" in major games by strategically trespassing over the offside line. Key moments and games have been won and lost as a result. Crucifixion? No! They build statues of him instead.
I'm not condoning cheating, but ...
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"Christopher Savage is a reputation management specialist and has advised on many corporate issues over three decades."
Will Sutherland, Howard & Peever survive the crisis? |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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Meanwhile, in other sports, ...
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-24/ump-right-to-stop-buddys-chux-wipe-afl
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LANCE Franklin was correctly stopped from cleaning the ball with a Chux Superwipe in Sydney's loss to Adelaide last Friday night, AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking says.
Franklin was handed the cleaning cloth by a Swans trainer as he prepared to take a shot on goal late in the final quarter...
After the star spearhead started to wipe the ball with the cloth, an umpire told him to stop and he quickly did so.
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"The only thing you can use (to clean the ball) is your uniform – your jumper, socks or shorts – you can't use anything else," Hocking said.
Franklin was rightly allowed to take his set shot – Hocking said there was no need to pay a free kick against him ...
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Video here:
https://twitter.com/AFL/status/988663193424687105 |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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England 'suspected' Australia ball-tampering during Ashes
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23303628/england-suspected-australia-ball-tampering-ashes
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Alastair Cook has said that England's cricketers suspected Australia of ball-tampering during their 4-0 Ashes defeat this winter, but admits that the extra pace of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins could well have been the decisive factor in obtaining the degrees of reverse swing that England's own bowlers failed to replicate.
Cook ... said that England's suspicions had been especially aroused on the final day of the third Test at Perth, when Australia overcame a three-hour rain delay to pick off England's remaining six wickets for an Ashes-sealing victory.
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"Yeah, a little bit," Cook said, when asked if England had been suspicious. "We did think in Perth, when the outfield was wet after the rain, how had they managed to get the ball reversing? I didn't see anything, [but] we've been pretty good on the ball, managing the ball so that it can reverse swing at certain times. Jimmy [Anderson] is obviously very good at reverse swinging, we got it going a touch at Melbourne either way, but with those drop-in pitches we didn't get it going massively."
However, Cook also admitted that "no one really understands" the mechanics of reverse swing, and conceded that a simpler answer might be that they had been out-performed by better, and faster, bowlers...
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Cook, who was speaking at an event to celebrate the return of Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week with cricket charity, Chance to Shine, was put on the spot during an assembly with local primary-school children when one of them asked him his opinion of "Australia's cheating" during the recent Cape Town Test. In an improvised response, he likened the act to diving in football, in that there are rules in place, but players will still push the boundaries of what is acceptable.
"It's not for me to comment on the punishments," he told the media afterwards. "I just think it was a real reminder, watching the whole thing, of what people want to watch in sport. It was the same as cycling, and the match-fixing in one sense, when people buy tickets to watch sport, they want to see, no matter who is playing, it's done in a fair way.
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Quick comment:
It seems fairly common for sportsmen to think, "They can do something we cannot do, so they must be cheating." This argument on its own is of course not strong. The nature of the human mind means that when your team has the ascendancy you attribute it to superior skill. In the article, Cook alleges superior pace of the English bowlers in the 2005 Ashes series, this supposedly being the key. In reality, I'm not sure we know with even modest confidence that pace is the main factor in reverse swing (with balls in the same condition). |
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K
Joined: 09 Sep 2011
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/cricket-review-to-include-better-conditions-for-touring-nations-20180428-p4zc6n.html
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While International Cricket Council chief executive Dave Richardson has flagged heavier sanctions for misbehaving players, a point the players' union has taken umbrage at, it can also be revealed governing bodies will be expected to treat each other better and dismiss notions they are "enemies".
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"With that in mind, both the chief executives and the board have given direction, we will be forming a review group ... the general direction is that we need to impose stricter and heavier penalties for ball tampering and other offences which are indicative of a lack of respect for the game, either for your opponent, the umpires or the fans, really. That's one step – making sure the penalties are more severe and much more of a deterrent to discourage poor behaviour in the first place.
"Secondly, to go along with that, in parallel, is to try and develop a culture of respect so the spirit of cricket – what does it actually mean, no one is really sure. But if we say we want people to be respecting the game, their opponent, the umpires, the media, the fans, now we begin to realise what we are trying to achieve.
"I think that's going to be applicable on the field, the players, but also off the field, in the boardrooms, how we treat each other as members. When a team arrives in a particular country, what sort of facilities are we giving them? Are we treating them as honoured guests or as your enemy in a war. We play cricket, we don't work or fight cricket."
In a bid to gain the upper hand, rival nations have often provided touring nations poor practice facilities or pitches in warm-up matches different in manner to what was expected in Tests.
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/icc-consider-harsher-penalties-for-ball-tampering-20180427-p4zby2.html
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"Whether we introduce red or yellow cards, we'd leave it to the committee. I'm not convinced that it would as easy to implement as it is in other sports." |
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