Cricket fans: Any thoughts on this ball tampering mess?

[sunfast]

Being absolutely cricket mad, I was deeply saddened by the events at the Oval on Sunday. It has the feel of one of those arguments you have when you're pissed that just accelerates and gets wildly out of hand.

I really hope that there can be enough of a resolution for the Pakistanis to stay on tour for the one day series.

 

[andrew050703]

from what i've read it looks like a case of not guilty/guilty:

not guilty - there's no evidence of tampering

guilty - having a strop is no excuse & did bring the game into disrepute

This may be a very rare case where football (or soccer for the U.S) is more mature than cricket - yes they may whinge in post match interviews about unfair decisions, but the teams don't fail to come on in the second half/all walk off. The appeals board should be sufficient to get justice.

Having said that, you'd think the umpires would give some reasonable evidence to support the ball tampering claims - just because the ball is scratched doesn't mean players scratched it. And yes, I do worry that they'll cancel the rest of the tour - lets hope that tempers cool.

 

[AlBDamned]

from what i've read it looks like a case of not guilty/guilty:

not guilty - there's no evidence of tampering

guilty - having a strop is no excuse & did bring the game into disrepute

Having said that, you'd think the umpires would give some reasonable evidence to support the ball tampering claims - just because the ball is scratched doesn't mean players scratched it. And yes, I do worry that they'll cancel the rest of the tour - lets hope that tempers cool.

They didn't come out because of the umpire (Darrel Hair) who had basically accused them - as a team - of cheating and they protest that they didn't cheat. Coupled with the history between Hair and Pakistan I can understand them not wanting to continue playing with him umpiring. However, Inzamam should've protested when first accused – not after the break – so he was wrong there and it was bad captaining.

However, if any proof does come to light that the ball was tampered with, then I could care less about the one-day series and believe Pakistan should be banned from test cricket for a long time because it's not the first time it's come up.

I'm sick of cheating - be it cycling, football, athletics or cricket.

I'm also sick of crap umpiring and refereeing and player stupidity having such an effect on national and international sports fixtures. It's getting stupid the number of times that games or events have been ruined recently because of cheating and unprofessionalism.

 

[sunfast]

It's certainly interesting that no evidence has come to light - and Sky had loads of cameras there. I think that umpire Hair has acted in a way to inflame feeling which certainly hasn't helped. I do wonder what Mr Madugalle will make of it all - the ICC have certainly been a guilty party in this in my eyes.