Caught in the act

[nirvana]

I found the Smith Bancroft press conference more distasteful than the actual cheating - theres so much cheating in pro sport h generally i cant get too agitated by this specific act. the punishment seems extremely harsh  even with the known context

[Doobs]

The mock outrage over this is staggering.

Compare the financial doping rangers carried out against the hole of Scottish football for a period of over 10 years and the amount of press coverage between both.

It demonstrates what is wrong with this country.

Love the use of the "hole of Scottish football"; sums it up for the rest of us too.

Why is it mock outrage? People genuinely go nuts over the tiniest of things, why wouldn't some be angry over this.  People lost their minds over Bradley Wiggins using a TUE for instance and that wasn't even breaking the rules.

You know as well as me Doobs that Wiggins is a cheat!

The mock outrage for me is a guy tried to nick an advantage it’s no different from the diving that goes on in football leagues across the world.

Taking PED’s or claiming illness to get round the rules and implications medical  pros is outright pre-meditated cheating.

Rangers robbed the tax man of millions we know of, how many more we don’t know about and this could have gone to a much needed public purse.

Other clubs impacted to which in turn causes further damage to the local community. 

Their behaviour far worse than anything the Australian cricket team or Sky Cycling done.

You seem to make a lot of assumptions about how people should think.  I think Wiggins is likely an asthmatic and know increasing exercise is going to make symptoms worse if he does get asthma.  People who don't get asthma seem to struggle with this concept that there are sportsmen who get asthma, but it seems entirely plausible to me that there are people who barely suffer with asthma at all, suffer a great deal when cycling up a great big fucking hill.   Very few asthms sufferers suffer attacks whilst just moping around the house and sitting in front of the tv.   

If you haven't got any evidence, he is feigning illness, then it seems a bit odd that you think I should "know" that, and "know" he is a cheat.  I try not to make these leaps and think a bit about what I say.  You could make an argument about which asthma drug should be allowed and in what doses, and I have sympathy with that, but you are going much further.

To me, it seems that the Australia cricket team and Lance Armstrong clearly crossed a line, Wiggins didn't.

[PokerBroker]

Seems a case of good old blighty doesn't cheat. 

Cycling is riddled with drug cheats the fact that Wiggins is ahead of the rest just adds weight to the fact he's a cheat in my book.  What he is doing is far worse than the Australian cricket team.

[TightEnd]

i don't think anyone is trying to compare this to any other sport

personally i am a middle class middle aged cricket fan. this has far more resonance to me than something in Scottish football, a sporting backwater of poor quality, Glasgow Celtic aside, and of little relevance to me but obviously the reverse is true for a Scottish football fan who doesn't watch cricket. horses for courses.

nor would i rush to the defence of wiggins or froome neither of which have been proved to have done wrong but of course the supposition is obvious. we could put farah in this category for example as well

Here you have admitted and blatant cheating that probably has been disproportionately punished for cultural reasons (Australian moral arbiter issues)

however i wouldn't put it in the same sphere as match fixing in any sport personally and i'd struggle to say "strong drug related suspicion">"admitted cheating" across two sports in terms of severity of punishment

 

[kukushkin88]

Seems a case of good old blighty doesn't cheat. 

Cycling is riddled with drug cheats the fact that Wiggins is ahead of the rest just adds weight to the fact he's a cheat in my book.  What he is doing is far worse than the Australian cricket team.

Bizarre how much weight every apportions to their own certainty that he's guilty. Some evidence would be so much more compelling.

[arbboy]

I think Wiggins is a cheat fwiw (40% of elite cyclists have asthma lollllllllllllllllzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).  I have had this debate this lunchtime with a few pro punters/gambling industry types and said  'who is worse?'  A world class 100m sprinter taking roids to get an edge (pre mediated) or the bunch of comical aussie jokers who actually planned this and thought they could get away with it in front of hundreds of cameras?   One gets banned for 4 years and second time a lifetime ban.  The cricketer gets banned for one year and who knows what if they re offend.  the difference between 1 year and 4 years seems incredible given both are pre mediated forms of cheating in top class sport.

A one year ban  for this seems incredibly generous to the players given some other test players got banned for four? years for spot fixing on the number of wides or no balls in a over which doesn't change the outcome of the game at all compared to what this level of cheating could do.

[Rubbish2407]

The only three people I know who are asthmatic are Froome, Wiggins and my Daughter. The fact she hasn't won or even competed in the Tour De France really rankles me.

[RED-DOG]

The only three people I know who are asthmatic are Froome, Wiggins and my Daughter. The fact she hasn't won or even competed in the Tour De France really rankles me.

I lolled.

[bobby1]

i don't think anyone is trying to compare this to any other sport

personally i am a middle class middle aged cricket fan. this has far more resonance to me than something in Scottish football, a sporting backwater of poor quality, Glasgow Celtic aside, and of little relevance to me but obviously the reverse is true for a Scottish football fan who doesn't watch cricket. horses for courses.

nor would i rush to the defence of wiggins or froome neither of which have been proved to have done wrong but of course the supposition is obvious. we could put farah in this category for example as well

Here you have admitted and blatant cheating that probably has been disproportionately punished for cultural reasons (Australian moral arbiter issues)

however i wouldn't put it in the same sphere as match fixing in any sport personally and i'd struggle to say "strong drug related suspicion">"admitted cheating" across two sports in terms of severity of punishment

 

Think there is a fine line in your last sentence there Rich. The bans handed out for spot fixing, tho obv they have added issues re influencing certain overs for financial gain for others are bigger than the bans handed out to these 3 players. Here they have admitted tampering with the ball to try to influence the outcome of the match.

Great to see an individual sports governing body take its own action to discipline cheating tho, didn’t the ICC hand out just a 1 game ban to the players the other day?

Fair play to the Aussies for treating them hard in relation to other ball tampering episodes in the past imo.

[bobby1]

The only three people I know who are asthmatic are Froome, Wiggins and my Daughter. The fact she hasn't won or even competed in the Tour De France really rankles me.

Top bombing sir.

[tikay]

i don't think anyone is trying to compare this to any other sport

personally i am a middle class middle aged cricket fan. this has far more resonance to me than something in Scottish football, a sporting backwater of poor quality, Glasgow Celtic aside, and of little relevance to me but obviously the reverse is true for a Scottish football fan who doesn't watch cricket. horses for courses.

nor would i rush to the defence of wiggins or froome neither of which have been proved to have done wrong but of course the supposition is obvious. we could put farah in this category for example as well

Here you have admitted and blatant cheating that probably has been disproportionately punished for cultural reasons (Australian moral arbiter issues)

however i wouldn't put it in the same sphere as match fixing in any sport personally and i'd struggle to say "strong drug related suspicion">"admitted cheating" across two sports in terms of severity of punishment

 

Think there is a fine line in your last sentence there Rich. The bans handed out for spot fixing, tho obv they have added issues re influencing certain overs for financial gain for others are bigger than the bans handed out to these 3 players. Here they have admitted tampering with the ball to try to influence the outcome of the match.

Great to see an individual sports governing body take its own action to discipline cheating tho, didn’t the ICC hand out just a 1 game ban to the players the other day?

Fair play to the Aussies for treating them hard in relation to other ball tampering episodes in the past imo.

This.

If only football were to do the same.

Every penalised action on a football field is contested, every decision appealed, the players nick a yard at every throw in, at corners they try to move the ball a few inches outside the quarter circle, goalkeepers wander across to the other side to take goal kicks (to waste time), & I've yet to see a penalty awarded where the players don't do that "not me Sir" thing with hunched shoulders & outstretched palms.

Cricket was quick & decisive here. Love it.

[Karabiner]

I think Smith and Warner were ripe for a fall due to their antics over the last couple of years - I especially went off them after the sledging of Johnny Bairstow which was clearly to me (reading between the lines) to do with his dad's suicide although it was only reported as "crossing the line".

Like Nirvana I was sickened by the smug attitudes in the presser directly after "tapegate" and Cricket Australia must have felt thoroughly galled by the entire episode including the events leading up to it. including the singling out and attempted slurring of Jimmy Anderson for cleaning dirt off the ball thusly putting themselves above such behaviour. a by-product of which was effectively setting themselves up for such a harsh punishment which may in a vacuum seem over the top for a simple piece of ball-tampering.

[bobby1]

i don't think anyone is trying to compare this to any other sport

personally i am a middle class middle aged cricket fan. this has far more resonance to me than something in Scottish football, a sporting backwater of poor quality, Glasgow Celtic aside, and of little relevance to me but obviously the reverse is true for a Scottish football fan who doesn't watch cricket. horses for courses.

nor would i rush to the defence of wiggins or froome neither of which have been proved to have done wrong but of course the supposition is obvious. we could put farah in this category for example as well

Here you have admitted and blatant cheating that probably has been disproportionately punished for cultural reasons (Australian moral arbiter issues)

however i wouldn't put it in the same sphere as match fixing in any sport personally and i'd struggle to say "strong drug related suspicion">"admitted cheating" across two sports in terms of severity of punishment

 

Think there is a fine line in your last sentence there Rich. The bans handed out for spot fixing, tho obv they have added issues re influencing certain overs for financial gain for others are bigger than the bans handed out to these 3 players. Here they have admitted tampering with the ball to try to influence the outcome of the match.

Great to see an individual sports governing body take its own action to discipline cheating tho, didn’t the ICC hand out just a 1 game ban to the players the other day?

Fair play to the Aussies for treating them hard in relation to other ball tampering episodes in the past imo.

This.

If only football were to do the same.

Every penalised action on a football field is contested, every decision appealed, the players nick a yard at every throw in, at corners they try to move the ball a few inches outside the quarter circle, goalkeepers wander across to the other side to take goal kicks (to waste time), & I've yet to see a penalty awarded where the players don't do that "not me Sir" thing with hunched shoulders & outstretched palms.

Cricket was quick & decisive here. Love it.

It took them 3-4 days of fact finding to make sure they apportioned the blame correctly. And in football people are moaning it takes 2 minutes for VAR to make a decision based on looking at the facts, not the guess of an official at full speed.

[stato_1]

I think the way Cricket Australia has dealt with this has been excellent really.

I happened to have registered for an account with them when setting up my fantasy big bash team and everyone with an account has received 3 updates this week, keeping everyone informed of what the current situation was and all were sent a copy of the statement personally addressed from the Head of , Mr. Sutherland

I been thinking a lot recently before this came out that there it irked me that Australia seemed to think it was their place to set the line in terms of what is ok and what isn’t with reference to sledging etc. So there’s definitely a significant feeling of schadenfruede for me, watching Smith and Warner who come across as the 2 most irritating members of the side get their comeuppance

Having heard their explanation I sort of believe that Lehman didn’t know about it, maybe that is naive, but there’s no way the bowlers weren’t at the very least aware of it.

[Woodsey]

I think Smith and Warner were ripe for a fall due to their antics over the last couple of years - I especially went off them after the sledging of Johnny Bairstow which was clearly to me (reading between the lines) to do with his dad's suicide although it was only reported as "crossing the line".

Like Nirvana I was sickened by the smug attitudes in the presser directly after "tapegate" and Cricket Australia must have felt thoroughly galled by the entire episode including the events leading up to it. including the singling out and attempted slurring of Jimmy Anderson for cleaning dirt off the ball thusly putting themselves above such behaviour. a by-product of which was effectively setting themselves up for such a harsh punishment which may in a vacuum seem over the top for a simple piece of ball-tampering.

Warner has been copping a fair amount of shit too over the fact his wife shagged Sonny Bill Williams, whenever you see him losing his rag they are usually needling him about that. Would normally say it was out of order, but in his case he probably deserves the payback!