Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

westoelad wrote:As for cheating,from an Aussie point of view,it's only cheating if you get found out.

Just as well their team isn't made up of short, fat Argentinians with white stuff around their noses or it wouldn't even be cheating then

Smith 'shocked and disappointed' at suggestions that he'd cheat!

doubtless he was surprised that anyone could think he'd even consider stooping that low

Not sure if the Aussie board are engaging in a bit of a cold war with the Indians, but there has been some murmours of discontent in the Indian camp with the conditions they have faced on arrival into Brisbane. The Indians were very much not greatly fond of the idea of travelling to the Gabba and Brisbane for the upcoming game, and had to be persuaded by the CA by having certain conditions and demands met. But on arriving to the hotel it seems the Indians have been quite shocked about the lack of facilities and the extent of the lockdown impact. It seems for instance that they have no access to hotel staff, housekeeping nor does the hotel offer any food. The story I read indicated the team were having to order takeaway's from phone apps to get to food. Such basics like gym, swimming pool (that apparently was required not for fun, but injury recovery) are out of bounds, and it sounds like the Indians are only allowed access to their rooms and one small communal area for the whole squad; and some have ben travelling with family, and as such are crammed into tiny spaces that are not comfortable.

Seen some suggestions that the team feel they were brought to Brisbane on false promises from the CA, and that the game could and should have been moved elsewhere rather than risk more covid exposure and worse conditions. Seems a fair point.

Is this a co-incidence or a pretty determined effort to get in the Indians head.

According to cricinfo they have access to the same catering as the Australian team. The problem is that they have no choice and neither do the Australians.

This quote was taken from cricinfo as well regarding house keeping

"One reason behind the absence of housekeeping and other hotel staff could be that the BCCI had told CA it would want the Indian squad to fly out of Brisbane immediately after the Test. To ensure maximum safeguards, it is possible CA agreed to having the bare minimum hotel staff to avoid unnecessary contact with a person outside the bio-secure environment."

The Indian players have already shown their indifference to Covid rules in Melbourne. Many people are having to make sacrifices in Australia due to this limited outbreak. The government is trying to prevent what has happened in other parts of the world. The test can be played in a safe environment if the players obey the guidelines put out in front of them. I imagine it is quite hard for some people to adjust to this lifestyle and it might seem like big sacrifices fo them at present. But some of these Indian players have their families on tour with them. There are those of us who have not been allowed to see our families in Australia for the last year and for potentially the next year as well.

Indian cricketers should be thankful that Cricket Australia are taking no chances. A covid outbreak during the Brisbane test puts the England tour in doubt and lost revenue for the BCCI.

yuppie wrote:According to cricinfo they have access to the same catering as the Australian team. The problem is that they have no choice and neither do the Australians.

The presence of the word "could" shows this point is nothing but conjecture. The Indian team complained of the needless application of measures, and have since been granted access to facilities at the hotel and the opportunity to leave their rooms. This shows at the very least that the conditions that CA arranged were far in excess of those needed and almost certainly not the same for the Australia team. Which is why people like Alyssa Healy ended up deleting idiotic tweets saying the Indian team were just whining because they stayed at the same hotel; yes they did, under similar circumstance but not the same restrictions. So why did the hotel make on rule for an Australia team and one for Indians?

CA have to own this, they were making the demands and arrangements. I think its pretty obvious this was playing some games. England and Pakistan lived under a far more intense biobubble than this series is being played in; they had food, gyms, golf courses, entertainment and full access to the hotel. So there is no explanation or justification for this.

yuppie wrote:The Indian players have already shown their indifference to Covid rules in Melbourne.

The truth of this accusation is up for debate. The BCCI basically said that it was a lie, and that the media in Australia are "often an extension of the national team". While investigations into the matter have not yet concluded, the member of the public who was eyewitness to this incident has since retracted parts of his story on the basis he had lied.

Once again is this just mind games? If any of the offending players did breach protocols then they'd be isolating... a lot of them ended up playing few days later in the isolation period, so I guess we can conclude this was all nonsense.

Alviro Patterson wrote:Indian cricketers should be thankful that Cricket Australia are taking no chances. A covid outbreak during the Brisbane test puts the England tour in doubt and lost revenue for the BCCI.

If the CA are taking no chances, why ignore the pleas from the BCCI and India team not to host the game in the only town in Australia that has a hard lockdown? ITs very clear the Indians wanted to move this game to safer places, assurances were given to get them to agree to it; it appears these in reality fell short of their promises.

If this was about Covid safety, the game would not be being played in Brisbane.

sussexpob wrote:

Alviro Patterson wrote:Indian cricketers should be thankful that Cricket Australia are taking no chances. A covid outbreak during the Brisbane test puts the England tour in doubt and lost revenue for the BCCI.

If the CA are taking no chances, why ignore the pleas from the BCCI and India team not to host the game in the only town in Australia that has a hard lockdown? ITs very clear the Indians wanted to move this game to safer places, assurances were given to get them to agree to it; it appears these in reality fell short of their promises.

If this was about Covid safety, the game would not be being played in Brisbane.

I'm not convinced that's true. Brisbane is no longer in hard lockdown - it was a snap 3 day lockdown on the basis of what is currently a 6 case outbreak. Outside of quarrantine, there are 2 known cases in the entire state. If you take the figures at face value, it's more dangerous to continue to hold it in Sydney.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-17/ ... 60704?nw=0

The whole quarrantine/border issue has become very politicised here, as no state leader wants to be the one that breaks Australia's pretty good streak of keeping covid largely out since October. The paranoia about the supposedly more infectious strain has meant that some poor souls are spending a month in quarrantine.

I'm not saying these reactions aren't to some extent justified (and anyway, that belongs on the politics thread), but it's not a fair characterisation to say that the match wouldn't be in Brisbane v Sydney if they were worried about covid safety.

That said, agreed that the limitations they were placed under seem clearly unfair and an overreaction. It seems they've since been lifted. You do have to wonder what's going on with CA.

Wow - more injuries for Ind with 4 forced changes from the Sydney test; and then we lose the toss yet again

An Indian team from those missing looks pretty strong, can't believe we are missing our 6 best seamers and our 2 main spinners!

Missing XI - Rahul, Vihari, Kohli, H Pandya, Jadeja, Ashwin, Bhuvi, Shami, Umesh, Ishant, Bumrah

sussexpob wrote:

Alviro Patterson wrote:Indian cricketers should be thankful that Cricket Australia are taking no chances. A covid outbreak during the Brisbane test puts the England tour in doubt and lost revenue for the BCCI.

If the CA are taking no chances, why ignore the pleas from the BCCI and India team not to host the game in the only town in Australia that has a hard lockdown? ITs very clear the Indians wanted to move this game to safer places, assurances were given to get them to agree to it; it appears these in reality fell short of their promises.

If this was about Covid safety, the game would not be being played in Brisbane.

It's not though, it's about getting Aus a win by playing on their favourite surface

This is insane. Practically an Indian second XI out there. First time India have used 20 players in a test series since the 60s.

I was going to say Australia win the toss and bat, so it's game over, but India nab Warner in the first over, despite this now being India's sixth choice seam attack...

Harris opening...?

Wee Davey didn't last long

Clearly a sub India attack. But ok batting.

Aussies at a huge advantage. It reminds me of England touring Australia in the nineties when by the time of the Tests everyone was injured.