Thetownend.com

It’s good to see the cheating bastards squirming having been caught in the act. Hard to see how Smith can keep his job after this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43529591

Bancroft is due at Somerset for this season.  I'm not sure if he's the sort of chap that we want with the mighty Cidermen after this.  Although I suppose he was put up to it by Smith and Warner, so maybe we can excuse him.

Properly hilarious stuff, the overreaction to this. The Aussie PM gave a statement where he sounded like his dog had died.

Smith and Warner stood down for the rest of this game at least.

Stopped clocks and all that, but Graeme Swann in right on this one- the Aussies have been sanctimonious about their line for so long that everyone's having a great time piling in on them now. Which is true, it is properly funny.

What really boils my piss about this is that the decision to ball tamper was taken by the senior players who then got the newbie to do their dirty work.

Oh, Johnny foreigner will manage to turn this round with little fuss smoke and mirrors. They always fucking do, it’s us that have to sit there and swallow this shit pie time and again.

I dislike Steve Smith with a passion, so the more the little shit is made to squirm over this the better.

Great to see the same two that were laughing at the Bairstow headbut, squirming at their latest press conferance !

And a lovely quote from David Warner coming back to haunt him !

I don't get cricket. seems ok to cheat - thought it was a noble game

take Bancroft, I get he was pressured by the senior team, but he's 25 FFS, not 9. 75% match fee and a few demerit points from ICC wasn't it?

I guess they will be further punished by public demand but that's not the point.

Living in NZ it does make for interesting reading looking from the outside in, This is the most hated team in world cricket so it doesn't comes as a surprise. I have heard multiple stories that may have happened.

Although they are reporting on the news Lehmann has offered his resignation, i think next will be David Saker the bowling coach and Smith and Warner will get a big ban. Steve Waugh has come out saying its against the ethics he and Ponting put together in 2003. I hate Smith and Warner so i hope they get banned for a long time by Cricket Australia and Bancroft has himself to blame but the Aus selectors have a easy option to drop him as Matt Renshaw who may i add is English has scored 5 tons in 5 games of shield cricket and has now been flown out to S.A.

Also Starc and Hazelwood trying to distance themselves from it all yet they are part of the leadership group and would have been in on the act as well. Getting a ball to reverse swing after 25 overs is very rare in any conditions so i think they have been doing it for a long time.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/players-turn-on-david-warner-as-ball-tampering-crisis-tears-team-apart-20180327-p4z6ks.html

David Warner is, to quote the Aussies, a shit bloke.

Press conference 6pm UK time 

I didn't think this could get better, but the finger pointing squarely at Warner really has added a silver lining to a gold plated cloud of brilliance

Cricket Australia looking at minimising the damage to the team by heaping it all on Smith, Warner and Bancroft.

Even Lehmann remains coach. How only those 3 can comprise ‘the leadership group’ is distinctly dodgy. The senior bowlers must have known someone was tampering with the ball.

Pass the whitewash.

The saddest part of all this is with Warner missing the 4th test we won't get to see Rabada sending his off-stump cart wheeling down towards the boundary rope, again.

In the original media interview (see OP) Smith said that the Leadership Group knew about it and spoke about it. It’s hard to imagine that the Leadership Group consisted only of Smith and Warner.  :hmmm:

And still not one single word from the coach, Lehmann, on the issue. This whole squad is tainted by this, even those genuinely with no knowledge of what was happening.

Stuart Broad made a good point, if this was the only occasion they have tampered with the ball, why now? They destroyed England in Oz and were swinging the ball in SA. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Almost certain they were up to it in the Ashes as well.

So the walkie talkie conversation between Lehmann and Handscomb was completely innocent as well?  :hmmm:

2 x 12 month bans and one x 9 month ban, then.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43565737

I still find it hard to believe Lehmann knew nothing of it and strange that none of the other members of the leadership group spoke up.  :hmmm:

Any reason why Warner seems to have been banned from leadership for life, but the other two just a couple of years?

It appears that Warner was the instigator:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22940383/cricket-australia-says-sandpaper-was-used-tamper-not-sticky-tape-cameron-bancroft-claimed

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22939470/steven-smith-david-warner-banned-12-months-cricket-australia

Personally, I would make the three of them wear sandpaper in their pants for the duration of the bans!  :)

It gets better.

Steve Smith breaks down in tears during an interview.

What a pussy

It's kinda traditional for prematurely outgoing Aussie captains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkKDQp9BeQY

Interesting that both Smith and Bancroft have faced the media and Warner hasn't, he really comes up as a grade 1 arsehole. Smith either cries bloody oddly or he was putting it on a bit!

Noticeable that Vaughan has come out and said Smith and Bancroft are 'decent guys', no mention of Warner!

Lehmann resigns. Thrown himself on a sharpened stump.

 Somerset have now binned Bancroft.  I understand why, but I'd have kept him...  someone probably Surrey will recruit Steve Smith.

 

I’d have thought he was perfect for Somerset, would give Brian Rose a run for his money in abusing the spirit of the game ;)

All cidermen, are paragons of virtue, with respect to the spirit of the game... OK there might be an occasional misunderstanding, like declaring in the first over of a one dayer to ensure qualification, but Ian Botham is a busy man. Also it was at Worcester, where the members were probably asleep anyway so wouldn't have minded.

I'm surprised that you would keep him.  Employing him during his suspension in Australia is surely undermining their punishment and therefore effectively condoning ball tampering?

Compared to other historical penalties the length of suspensions seems pretty harsh and I for one couldn't give a toss.  We've had to listen to years of Australia holding themselves and their shitty green baggies as being the epitome of everything good and honourable that the game stands for when in reality their on-field antics are borderline cheating and they are the world's biggest whiners when they lose.  Amazed that Vaughan stands up for that snivelling little toe-rag Smith.

What the Aussies choose to do is their business.... but my feeling is these are fellas who've fucked up, and there needs to be a punishment, but it's got to be proportionate to the sin. 

I don't really see any reason why Somerset should wade in with additional punishment.