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Post by Big Lin on Sept 5, 2010 18:00:24 GMT
The trouble is that instead of us just thinking that Pakistan were a young team making a lot of mistakes you automatically start wondering if they're deliberately throwing matches.
Very sad!
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Post by gabriel on Sept 6, 2010 11:02:09 GMT
lin he was caught with marked money. I'm not sure how much more evidence the cops need but I wouldn't think it would be a lot.
Fixing matches is not right.
John Howard was 'in line' to be the next head of the ICC. He is a cricket desperate but the sub-continent members voted against him and he wasn't chosen. I'm starting to believe now that it was because he wouldn't tolerate this behaviour and would go after the parties involved - India and Pakistan.
The new ICC head is from NZ and I trust that he will go after these countries. There are few enough countries now that play the game. It's a great tradition and bind for those that do.
I live across from a park and they've been back now, for the last few weeks, starting to practise. It's Spring now so we're heading back into cricket season. These kids and adults wear white. No colours, just white. Because that's what you wear when you play cricket.
And they play for the love of the game. Not for how many used tenners can be shoved into your bag in a London hotel room.
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Post by aubrey on Sept 6, 2010 16:56:03 GMT
I can think of ways in which it is possible to have marked money while not having taken a bribe. "Lend us a tenner till Friday."
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Post by gabriel on Sept 8, 2010 10:09:25 GMT
www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/police-find-cash-in-pakistan-cricketers-rooms-amid-bribery-charges-2065554.htmlIf you're interested, read the whole article. I'll just post this.The verdict of Dr Asim Safdar, one of many Pakistan cricket fans who formed part of a relatively sparse crowd at Lord's yesterday, was damning. "They need to cancel the one-day series, cancel the Twenty20s, and give all the spectators their money back," he said. "I've got two tickets for one of the one-day games. I'm selling them on eBay, even if they make a loss. I just want to get rid of them. And I'm not going to get up in the middle of the night to watch them play in the World Cup next year. I'm fed up with it." The final session of the fourth Test match was suddenly charged with less sporting tension perhaps than any ever played at the home of cricket. " It's always Pakistan," said Dr Safdar's friend Dr Asad Saleemi. " These things seem to follow them around. The team needs to be suspended from international cricket. The players concerned must be given life bans. We're doctors. If we did something like this, we'd be struck off." Around the bars and food stands, the allegations in the News of the World overshadowed everything. "My friends have been texting me telling me to boo the team," said Dr Safdar, as the final wicket tumbled. "You see. Was that fixed? Is he trying? You don't know now do you? I spend so much time and money following the team: what's the point?" "People in Pakistan are going through such turmoil," said Dr Saleemi. "And then there's these guys, who are supposed to be international representatives, pocketing huge sums of money. People have come to expect it from the crooked politicians, but cricket is the dream of every kid from a poor background. They are seen as heroes." This guy makes a point a lot of us are now feeling. Was that game fixed? 20/20 is bad for the game. How can you trust these guys to be doing their best? You can't. Cricket is about more than flashy colours and trying to belt the ball over the fence every time it's bowled.
It's about strategy, and talent, and courage, and sportsmanship.
It's not about Indian bookies and Pakistani captains selling their teams and the sport out.
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Post by gabriel on Sept 21, 2010 10:38:54 GMT
Well now, the finger has been pointed at the English team for match fixing and taking bribes. Say it isn't so!! Not the Poms. That really would be the death knell. It was bad enough they brought Bodyline against us in the 30's - not very gentlemanlike behaviour. They've been accused of throwing last Friday's match against Pakistan by..guess who? Pakistan.
You know, I would personally think that after all the death and destruction in Pakistan caused by the enormous floods, that that disaster would be the main focus of everyone in Pakistan. But no, apparently, the chaps who play cricket for Pakistan at test level (and their bookies) believe that keeping next year's World Cup is more important.
It just doesn't seem like cricket to me.
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Post by Big Lin on Sept 21, 2010 12:06:56 GMT
I think England's batting is inconsistent enough for them to lose matches without any need for bribery.
It's all very sad.
Mind you, Hanse Cronje was caught out, wasn't he?
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Post by gabriel on Sept 21, 2010 12:28:21 GMT
I think England's batting is inconsistent enough for them to lose matches without any need for bribery. It's all very sad. Mind you, Hanse Cronje was caught out, wasn't he? Do you mean on the field or off the field? Once you get the whiff of fixing, then who are you going to believe? And it's creeping through the game and it's not good. I want to know that the Australian cricket team goes up against other sides in a fair contest. No fixing, no betting, no nothing. From our side or the other side. I just want to watch a game based on skill, determination and strategy. I've sat at the Gabba before all the modernisation when you could literally touch the English side. We'd give them a bit of encouragement but we always knew that every bloke out there was doing his best. It was the Ashes and you wouldn't expect anything less. Bookies in cricket is a bad thing. They're only after making a quid and that's not going to do cricket any good.
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Post by alanseago on Sept 21, 2010 17:04:24 GMT
Sing it loud!
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Post by aubrey on Sept 21, 2010 19:25:57 GMT
Gambling corrupts everything it touches.
(That is a great song, Alan.)
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Post by gabriel on Sept 22, 2010 5:53:08 GMT
Was a good song Alan. WI are another case in point. Forget the glory years with Michael Holding etc. WI has long ceased to be a force in cricket. Instead of playing cricket, they're playing baseball. Go to the US, make a mint of money playing that game. I suppose I can't really blame them. I been Jamaica man and it's not somewhere I'd choose to live especially if I came from a disadvantaged background.
But still, the sooner the ICC sweeps the rot out of the game, the better.
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Post by aubrey on Sept 22, 2010 18:59:54 GMT
WI are good when they're winning, but don't seem to try when it looks like they might lose.
Our lass and her sister are watching the last Eng-Pak match now. It's been good, what I've seen of it. When I came in here, it was looking like Pakistan might win.
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Post by gabriel on Sept 23, 2010 5:53:13 GMT
England won by 121 runs. That is, if the Pakis didn't throw the match because their bookies told them to.
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Post by aubrey on Sept 23, 2010 9:08:57 GMT
It would be a lot easier (in that there aren't as many of them) to bribe the umpires: two dodgy LBW decisions in Egland's favour in this match.
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Post by aubrey on Sept 26, 2010 9:52:50 GMT
Over now. It's a long time till the Ashes, as well - nearly 2 months.
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Post by aubrey on Sept 26, 2010 10:00:35 GMT
By the way, the bribery thing.
In the Novel Flashman's Lady by George MacDonald Fraser, there is an account of someone honourably, or at least not dishonourably, taking a bribe to throw a one-a-side cricket match. Actually, this person is Flashman himself, and it's one of the few not dishonourable things he does.
How it's done, is that he is bribed to play his best in two or three matches (he refuses the money, but finds it in his pocket, I think it is, after the game, and can't find anyone to give it back to: he might be a cad, but he's not stupid). Anyway, a few matches down the line, and he's told to throw a game: which is a bit of a sod, as the bloke he's playing against is going to take Flashman's wife on a cruise if he wins, and Flashman doesn't trust him above half. A lot happens after that.
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Post by gabriel on Sept 27, 2010 5:58:13 GMT
Well, Aust is playing India, in India soon. I wonder what odds the bookies will be offering? I'd love to know what they are for the Commonwealth Games to even open. Look at the mess the Indians have made of it. You'd think they only found out last week they were going to stage it.
OMGOMGOMG!!! (running around in circles) frantically trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Or is that a stadium out of thin air?
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Post by Big Lin on Sept 27, 2010 17:12:27 GMT
Look on the bright side, Gabriel. At least with the Ashes series you KNOW both sides will be trying their level best to win (and my money's on the Aussies because although I think our bowling attack is overall better than the Australians our batting is so maddeningly inconsistent that we can fall apart for no reason.
Yes, the India-Australia series is a different matter.
Goodness only knows how many bizarre decisions and 'mistakes' there might be in that one!
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Post by gabriel on Sept 28, 2010 6:34:35 GMT
Look on the bright side, Gabriel. At least with the Ashes series you KNOW both sides will be trying their level best to win (and my money's on the Aussies because although I think our bowling attack is overall better than the Australians our batting is so maddeningly inconsistent that we can fall apart for no reason. Yes, the India-Australia series is a different matter. Goodness only knows how many bizarre decisions and 'mistakes' there might be in that one! Geez, if you can't believe that the Ashes aren't ridgy didge then there's probably not a lot of point playing cricket! It's the Holy Grail where Aus cricket is concerned, always has been. I think your critique is to the point. We're back at the stage of trying to build up our bowling - we've had a golden age for the last 15 years or so but like everyone, they grow old. I think our batting is much more promising than the Poms' - more stable and certainly more consistent. You want openers to stay there and do the deal so your No 3 can come in and shine. Then you want a middle order that's not gonna fold and if you have a quickie who can belt a few sixes or hold up an end for a real batsman, that's good too.
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Post by firedancer on Sept 28, 2010 13:04:48 GMT
I agree with Lin about our inconsistent batting but I also think our bowlers will face a different sort of challenge in Oz. Sure, Anderson, Broad, Finn and the sublime Swann are great bowlers but they will be bowling on different types of pitches with a Kookaburra ball that doesn't reverse like a Duke ball. I think it could be incredibly close. Be wonderful if it could live up to the 2005 Ashes - with the same result of course
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Post by gabriel on Sept 28, 2010 13:18:08 GMT
Noooo!!! You're not criticising the Kooka!! That's capital punishment!!
It's actually raining. We've been in serious drought for the last 20 years and it's raining again. I'm talking about the Eastern states. It's September, Spring, and it's raining. So the weather blokes say, it's going to be the wettest Spring and Summer since...
So that's going to affect the pitches and it's going to affect the Kooka leather - do they still make them out of leather, I wonder?
I suspect that the pitches, here on the East at any rate, are going to be a lot slower than we've seen for many years.
I could be wrong. But still, it will be interesting.
It would be nice if you Poms would just let us have the Ashes when we win them. We're not going to sell them, you know. Just smile smugly.
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