'Cruel betrayal': Cricket's heart broken in Australia over ball-tampering

Agencies
March 26, 2018

Sydney, Mar 26: Being Australia's cricket captain is widely seen as the second most important job in the country behind the prime minister. Many would argue it holds even more prestige.

In an astonishing development, the captain said he hatched a plot to tamper with the ball in the third Test against South Africa, which saw team-mate Cameron Bancroft use yellow sticky tape on Saturday in Cape Town to try and alter its condition.

He was caught on camera and comically tried to hide the evidence by stuffing it down the front of his trousers.

Everyone from former Test greats, to the Australian Sports Commission, and the public condemned what happened, with the story dominating front pages, television news and coffee shop chatter.

Even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was "shocked and bitterly disappointed".

"It seemed completely beyond belief that the Australian cricket team had been involved in cheating," he said.

Cricket, long considered the gentleman's game, is more than a sport in Australia -- it is widely seen as helping shape the country itself, with its British origins helping foster and develop the national character, morals and ideals.

Wearing the baggy green cap of the national team is sacred, an honour earned by barely 450 people.

With that accolade comes great responsibilities in a former colony whose national identity owes much to its prowess in sport.

"To cheat is just not in the spirit of what Australians do. They fight hard, they play hard, but they don't cheat," cricket fan Steve Chaka told AFP in Sydney.

Another, Giovanni Cettolin, said Smith's lapse of judgement was "definitely not good sportsmanship for an Australian".

"Us Aussies all dig in and fight hard, you know, and obviously he didn't do that. It's a shame, it really is."

As Jaimie Fuller, executive chairman of the Skins compression wear a group of companies, explained in a full-page newspaper advert Monday: "Cricket is such a part of our national psyche that it helps define us.

"It helps give us a sense of what is fair, and what is not; what is right and what is wrong."

He said Cricket Australia had a moral responsibility to display good governance in how it responds to the scandal.

"If you don't, it's not just the Australian cricket team who is shamed, but it will be all of you. It will be cricket. And it will be all of us."

Catherine McGregor, author of the book "An Indian Summer of Cricket", said it would take a long time for the Australian public to forgive "this cruel betrayal".

"No other game is so self-conscious in revering noble defeat, nor in insisting how it is played is more important than the result," she wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Cheating in order to win at any price 'just isn't cricket'."

She added that the anger of cricket lovers around the country was understandable.

"They are the true believers. This team is unworthy of them."

Australian cricket fans have long regarded the national team's style as hard but fair, but there has been mounting concern about the perceived arrogance from some, with the cheating scandal a step too far.

Peter Lalor, cricket correspondent for The Australian and Sydney's Daily Telegraph, said the conspiracy clearly showed "there is something rotten at the heart of the Australian cricket team".

"The public has struggled to love a side that wins ugly, but success and nationalism and tradition have patched the frayed fabric," he wrote Monday.

"A conspiracy to cheat, however, has ripped the cloth and major repairs will be needed."

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News Network
March 3,2020

Daman, Mar 3: A BJP councillor was shot dead on Monday in the Union Territory of Daman, police said.

Salim Memon was sitting in his motorcycle showroom when three to four unidentified persons shot four to five bullets after asking a visitor there to move out, an official said quoting eye-witnesses.

While fleeing, they also shot two rounds close to this visitor who was standing outside, he said.

"Memon was rushed to a hospital in Marwad area but was declared dead on arrival. CCTV footage is being scanned to nab the culprits," said Daman Superintendent of Police Vikramjit Singh.

Memon was elected to Daman municipality as a Congress candidate but then switched over to the BJP.

Sources said Memon, who also has a land brokerage business, had come out of jail a few months back in connection with a case of rivalry.

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News Network
May 6,2020

New Delhi, May 6: He has flattered to deceive on umpteen occasions but highly-rated wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson says he has learnt to accept his failures in pursuit of the calm demeanour that former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni possesses.

The 25-year-old from Kerala has always been talked about by the likes of Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir but it hasn't translated into international success with only four T20 Internationals in his kitty in the last five years.

"I have learnt to understand and focus more on my strengths and (be more) accepting (of) the failures. I try to contribute to the team's cause and try to take the team over the line. I am learning to focus and control my emotions while batting like MS Dhoni," Samson said during a podcast organised by Rajasthan Royals.

He recently made a comeback in India's T20 side and it was a worthy experience for him.

"It was great to be a part of the Indian team again. To be a part of one of the best teams in the world, surrounded by players like Virat bhai and Rohit bhai, it was a fantastic experience," Samson said.

In one of the games in New Zealand, Samson was sent to bat in the Super Over, something which made him feel wanted in the Indian set-up.

"It was a great feeling to be trusted by the players such as Virat bhai and Rohit bhai to go out there and bat in the crucial moments. It's a great feeling when the team and the players consider you to be a match winner."

On a lighter note, Samson revealed that he refers to Steve Smith as "chachu" (uncle) after Brad Hodge once started calling him by that name.

"I share a very good relationship with 'Chachu' Steve Smith. He is one of the best brains in world cricket and we all enjoy a lot playing under him."

Asked what's the back story of the nickname, Samson said: "It started with Brad Hodge, he used to call Smith 'Chachu', then when Hodgy left, I started calling Smith 'Chachu'. In return Smith also started calling me 'Chachu'. We both really enjoy and continue calling each other that."

While Dhoni is his idol, he also loves watching Jos Buttler in Royals and makes notes on how the star Englishman prepares for games.

"I observe Jos especially given he too is a wicketkeeper-batsman. He's always working on his skills and his game and never sits idle.

"He's either working on his keeping, batting in the nets or running around the park. I love to observe and know how he thinks and prepares as a keeper before a game.

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: The coronavirus pandemic will leave behind a global recession with small businesses, self-employed and daily wagers taking the worst hit, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said on thursday.

"The virus will eventually be conquered, but it will have left behind a global recession. The costs of that are incalculably high at this time. The most fearsome toll will be on small businesses, the self-employed & those whose lives depend on meagre daily wages," Mahindra said in a tweet.

Apart from the toll on lives, the legacy of Covid-19 may well be deaths due to stress, loss of livelihoods, a rise in homelessness and in extreme situations, civil unrest, he added.

"The only global experience that has lessons for us in the current situation is the last world war. In the aftermath of WW2, the US came up with the Marshall plan to revive Europe, effectively a giant fiscal pump-priming," Mahindra said.

In the US, the government dramatically dismantled regulations and opened up the economy to trade and these actions led to a boom-cycle that stretched to 1975, he added.

"This time, there will be no victors, only the vanquished. So every country will have to create its own post ‘virus war” marshall plan & take care of those in society who are hit the hardest. Perhaps we too can build the foundations of a sustained global growth cycle," Mahindra said.

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