The Australian cricket non-official thread!

Smith needs to be stripped of captaincy and banned by Cricket Australia, be it one tour or 1 year, he needs some time on the sidelines. Warner too. I would like to k ow why, if Smith made the decision to do it, why he didn’t do the act himself, was Bancroft bullied into it or was he an outright willing participant. Australian cricket needs an overhaul. It has become a toxic environment in there. We need a strong leader who doesn’t revert to bullying and cheating I. The face of adversity.

I’m so disappointed by all of this, and have had to explain to my 10 year old why his heroes did the wrong thing.

Hang your head in shame Mr. Smith, this is a dark day for Australian cricket.
 
I just watched Michael Clarke on Sports Sunday and he is absolutely gutted.

The prevailing sentiment is Smith sacked, Bancroft sacked, anyone in that leadership group who conspired to cheat should be gone.

And I'm with them. If all 11 cheated, then we have a new 11 for 4th Test. If Lehman was aware, then he is gone too.

And they're right - Australia has been toxic in South Africa after the management and the pay dispute still probably making them cranky/bitter. I know there are rumours the players are worn out and the amount they play in short bursts (Ashes 5 tests in 6 weeks; South Africa 4 tests in 5 weeks) is contributing to the aches, pains and gripes. The South African fans hate us at the moment and rightly so. But to cheat...dear me. Pathetic.
 
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One point I will add is I feel that in both the Indian series and this series we had the moral high ground until the DRS and ball tampering.

While we were to blame for much of the inflammatory comments being initiated we also took a level of responsibility unlike Kohli who denies everything and SA who amongst many issues still maintain Philanders Twitter was hacked.

Lehman is balls deep in this one, he was on the two way to Handscombe who had lengthy chats to Bancroft.
 
Who is not on the tour that could make this a 'new' Australian test team?
And I'm not including bench players over in South Africa either.

The current squad:
TEST SQUAD: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Jackson Bird, Jon Holland, Jhye Richardson.
Jackson Bird is actually back here playing the SS final.

The a prospective squad for the 4th Test only:

Matt Renshaw
Marcus Labuschagne
Joe Burns
Travis Head
Glenn Maxwell
Marcus Stoinis
Callum Ferguson
George Bailey
Aaron Finch
George Bailey
Alex Carey wk
Billy Stanlake
Ashton Agar
Jackson Bird
Chad Sayers
Chris Tremain

It's got a mix of players who might be too young, too raw, too old but give them a shot - a single shot - at giving Australia something to cheer for, to give the South Africans something to admire (or deride as they might want, I don't care what they think TBH).

The one thing we'd know, is they wouldn't bloody cheat. And I'd rather see them lose 2 years straight knowing they were doing the best they could, without sneering, sledging or sinning.
 
BREAKING NEWS !!

Queensland duo Matt Renshaw and Joe Burns, along with Tasmanian skipper George Bailey, are all being reported among players considered to fly to South Africa as cover for the fourth and final Test of the series.

Nothing official yet but Cricket Australia are making plans for a flight in next 24 hours, with the players likely to be pulled from the ongoing Sheffield Shield Final.
 
One of the saddest parts of my cricket-following life came tonight whilst watching the first session of play. The constant thought of “are YOU a cheat?” flooded my mind every time the camera focused on an Australian player. I mean, how do we actually know WHO knew? Even if the duplicity was contained to Smith, Warner, Bancroft and only one member of the ironically-named “leadership” group, that makes at LEAST four players who were involved in the decision to cheat.

I don’t for a second believe the contrition from Steven Smith, who (paraphrasing him) suggested that even had the team “got away with it”, he’d still have felt terrible. Herein lies the heart of the issue. Imagine if the team did “get away with it”.......what an awful example to set and burden to carry with you. Would he have felt so terrible that a post-match confession would have followed? Hardly.

My question is this: why didn’t ANYONE in the leadership group say “Skip, here’s the thing. If this is the plan, you can stick it fair up your arse....I’m not going to be involved in it and I’ll stay in the dressing room, thanks”. Though the buck ultimately stops with the captain, he also needs men of high moral fibre alongside him. It would appear that in this cricket team, those types of men are few and far between.
 
ICC have banned Smith for next test match and docked him 75% of his match fee. Bancroft has recieved 3 demerit points and they have docked him 100% of his match fee.

Will be interesting to see what Cricket Australia will do. Already had a call from the PM and the Australian Sports Commisssion to sack Smith.
 
Demoralising.... all out for 107... Saffies win by 322 runs! Great win by the South Africans, they played well, with bat, ball and psychology of this game.

The proper review will now begin and with a 4 day turn around... will be interesting to see what happens and how things unfold... I will try to avoid my arm chair critique of it all as it’s only fair on all involved that we let CA respond above and beyond the ICC’s decision as Dan mentioned above and any decisions in regards to any further sanctions.

A huge congrats to man of the match Morne Morkel. 9 for the match with 5 in the second.
 
This team is piss weak.

And Smith is a liar and a cheat.

I'm assuming as Tim Paine was made captain he was not involved. If that was the case and does seem to be a steadying influence, then I wish him well rebuilding this team.
 
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