By Brad Jamieson
November 1st 2009 @ 12:14am
View The Roar's top cricket writers.
Love new art, fashion, music? Check out Aussie site which unearths all things cool and creative.
Join Australia’s community for solo & micro business at FlyingSolo.com.au
Related coverage
How far can cricket cheating go?
The recent series in England re-introduced the notion of acceptable cheating. In other sports, such as rugby and soccer, cheating appears to be quite acceptable.
There were quite a few examples of people defending rugby players cutting themselves to achieve a benefit. In soccer, it seems that diving is not only acceptable but also encouraged. Given [...]
This article is over 2000 days old and has been trimmed.
Get Australia's best Cricket opinion emailed daily.
Like this content? Buzz it up!
Free Email updates:
Our daily emails are only sent if there is content for the sport or that author. You can subscribe to multiple daily emails; or get the daily Roar email with all our content in it. We value privacy. More...


(8)
![Love him or hate him, you certainly couldn’t ignore him. Wendell Sailor, flamboyant and polarising, announced his retirement today and a move into a new role as an ambassador for the St George Illawarra Dragons.
Over a distinguished career (that wasn’t without its moments), Sailor electrified both league and union fans with his powerful surges on [...] The Roar: Big Dell hangs up his famous white boots](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/oh-unlucky-men-wendell-sailor-th.jpg)
![I’ve just got back from meeting up with Carl Valeri at his new Serie B club Sassuolo. After a difficult few months late last year, when the president of Grosseto froze him out of the side for refusing to sign a contract extension, things have finally turned around for Valeri.
The Canberra-born midfielder is due to [...] Davidde Corran: An FFA scouting network could be the A-League’s cure](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/socceroos-valeri-th.jpg)
![Manchester City and Tottenham fans may disagree, but the English Premier League table already has a familiar look to it. Meanwhile there’s an altogether different outlook in what is, in my opinion, the most exciting league in Europe: the Bundesliga.
Traditionsverein Hamburger SV are locked in a dogged duel with the relatively unloved Bayer Leverkusen [...] Mike Tuckerman: Bundesliga is Europe’s most exciting league](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/bundesliga-voronin-th.jpg)
![On Monday Tennis Australia votes for its latest President. In the blue corner is the establishment doyen Geoff Pollard, now 20 years at the helm. And in the red corner, with the promise of change, is Paul McNamee, a former professional player and now a gifted and successful administrator.
If Tennis Australia wants to be re-invigorated [...] Spiro Zavos: It’s got to be Paul McNamee for Tennis Australia](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/paul-mcnamee-tennis-australia-th-128x150.jpg)
![A recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald referred to a new development in cricket bats, with about a quarter of the back of it flattened and rolled so that a batsman, especially in Twenty-20 cricket, could use both sides of it as a switch hitter.
If the development is a success, it will represent the [...] Spiro Zavos: Double-bladed bats have the wood on tradition](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/double-handed-bats.jpg)
![If 2009 was meant to herald the return to dominance of the little man in rugby league, then to borrow a phrase from our tourism board, “Where the bloody hell are they?”
The game was meant to be faster, meaning we were going to see more players like Matt Bowen carving up tiring forwards.
However, what coaches [...] Steve Kaless: A good big man will always beat a good small man](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/good-big-man-josh-perry-th.jpg)
![Rain interrupting cricket is annoying, but has its advantages. During the one-dayer between Australia and the West Indies at the SCG on Friday, I had interesting chats with the ABC radio team.
“I have an idea for a book for you, Kersi,” said Jim Maxwell, tongue-in-cheek. “Why don’t you write a book on tattooed Test cricketers.”
“It [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: Celebrating the ‘Bearded Ones’ in Test cricket](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/south-africa-cricket-hashim-amla-th.jpg)
![A few weeks back we solicited your questions to put to the NSW Waratahs CEO Jim L’Estrange, who has just entered what is going to be a challenging season with the Waratahs. He responded expansively to the batch of questions we posed to him.
When are we going to see more Super rugby matches on a [...] The Roar: Jim L’Estrange answers your questions on the Waratahs](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/jim-lestrange-th.jpg)
![The 1st of May is better known as May Day or International Workers Day. But for motorsport fans, it will be forever remembered as the day the sport lost one of its greats. The death of Ayrton Senna fifteen years ago was a seismic moment in the history of motorsport, a moment not forgotten by [...] Adrian Musolino: The day motorsport changed forever](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/theday-motorsport-senna-th.jpg)
![One of the highlights of Sydney Tests is the dinner hosted by The Australian Cricket Media Association (ACMA) to present the Australian Cricketer of the Year Award at Sydney Football Stadium.
This year’s winner was Shane Watson. Brad Haddin was the winner last year and Mitchell Johnson the previous summer. As this was a Silver Jubilee [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: Watson named Australia’s best by the media](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/australian-cricket-watson-th.jpg)
![With the Super 14 now a month in, it would seem as good a time as any to start marking the Australian teams, and see which, if any, teams might be heading for the pointy end of the competition ladder.
As I discussed last week, the quality of the rugby this year is a massive improvement [...] Brett McKay: The first month Super 14 report card for the Aussies](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/reds-quade-cooper-th.jpg)
![There’s no two ways about this. This is a column I never would have dreamt writing not all that long ago. I’m sure I’m not the first person to admit that I’ve never been a big fan of Nathan Hauritz as a spin-bowling option.
Just as I maintain about Cameron White now, I also used to [...] Brett McKay: Hard to believe, but Hauritz is winning me over](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/australias-spin-future-hauritz-th.jpg)




Homer said | November 1st 2009 @ 12:40am | Report comment
If that is cheating, what do you make of providing nets for the opposing team but no net bowlers. Or enough balls for practice? Oh wait.. that’s gamesmanship, this is cheating and hypocrisy is universal!
Sam C said | November 2nd 2009 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
Well Said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s regrettable that this still happens (lack of sportive spirit / gamesmanship / cheating ) all the time but people will comment only when this goes against their own team. It’s high time sports lovers speak up against this sort of things regardless of which side does it!!
davido said | November 3rd 2009 @ 3:07am | Report comment
It is cheating and whoever does it is a cheat.
But it is rare to have such blatant cheating. Not providing spinners is not the same as not providing the ability to actually train. At a different level all togethor really.
You might note that Indian TV displayed the Australian team hotel on several channels and invited people to come down and make some noise the night before. Cheating pure and simple. Or is that gamesmanship?
Homer said | November 3rd 2009 @ 5:58am | Report comment
Not as rare as you would think Davido…It happened when India toured Australia in 2007/08.. As to levels, that is the crux of my argument really – when your guys do it, it is not as blatant, when my guys do it, it is the worst thing ever in the world.. And so on and so forth..Great for a pissing contest, but hardly further the debate.
Also, an unfortunate choice of examples about the TV channels.. The words “Headingley”, “Ashes” and “Fanatics” immediately spring to mind.
And while you are at it, could you tell me the TV channel and the program where they “invited people to come down and make some noise the night before”.. Just wondering how I missed that.
Cheers,
davido said | November 6th 2009 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
Please provide more details of when it happened in Australia that the training pitches were watered just before the visting team were going to use them.
As to miscommunication – there was no miscommunication, the media were there and they even laughed and questioned the groundsman when they were watering the pitches.
Re the hotel, I saw it on DDTV. My friend also said he saw it on Zee news. This is a common thing India. For the recent test series here it took me less than an hour to find out where both teams were staying (the same hotel by the way) in Bangalore.
As to the Fanatics, they never did a thing. The fire alarm was a malfunction. When asked if they did it by a british reporter if they did it, they claimed – toungue in cheek – that they did, knowing how gullible the british press are.
Fly on the Wall said | November 2nd 2009 @ 6:28pm | Report comment
I remember being in Brisbane for the first Test v the West Indies in 1996-97 and a member of the Australian team management ordered that no local leg spinners be recruited as net bowlers for the Windies so they wouldn’t have any practise against Warne-type deliveries.
And being in India for the 1996 World Cup and every Indian net bowler for the Aussies was a chucker.
davido said | November 3rd 2009 @ 3:08am | Report comment
Actually that is incorrect. There never was an order to not have any bowlers. The WI never asked for any and so never got any. Get your facts right.
marees said | November 4th 2009 @ 12:17am | Report comment
Brad, I think you need to cool down. There was a mis-communication involved. the ground -staff were under the impression that australia would come later in the day (afternoon) for the nets.
However, this was very unprofessional by the BCCI and considering the fact that India-Aus are supposed to play once every year, this is no way to treat the visitors