By Brad Jamieson
November 1st 2009 @ 12:14am
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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 the money, it might be impossible NOT to dive if a player wants to keep their place on the team.
But these are on-field matters. Is it acceptable for people off the field to interfere with matters on the field?
Take for example the third cricket one-day international between Australia and India. Australia turned up to find that the groundsman had deliberately watered the training pitches, destroying any chance of Australia training. This is blatant cheating, and it will be interesting to see if the ICC has enough influence or will power left to do something about it.
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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