Steve Smith Incident
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:54 am
Hot topic at the moment in cricket is the Steve Smith incident on the last day of the 3rd test where he was 'caught' on the stump camera messing around the crease. The camera shows Smith shadow batting as a left hander before scrubbing his foot over the crease, it has been viewed in two ways, view a Smith was marking his own centre which too be honest seems odd, but he's an odd guy. View B is that he was rubbing out Pant's mark which forced Pant to mark centre again, again this seems odd because regardless of whether Smith did rub out the mark, Pant like every other batsman would retake centre multiple times throughout an innings, some players take centre every time they come back on strike.
The reaction from this has made me both angry and laugh, I laugh because I have never seen such a little incident; which really shouldn't even be an incident turn into such controversy, they've really made a mountain out of a mole hill. Even if Smith was rubbing out Pant's mark on purpose, it's not that big a deal, it's not against the rules and it's not going to effect the batsman because as I said he will retake centre many times during an innings.
I'm angry because it's given the cricket world another chance to lay the boot into Australia, for a series not involving them the English certainly have come out condemning Smith & Australia big time!!! The calls of 'The Aussies back to their old habits of cheating" have come out and to be frank have zero credibility. I feel sorry for Smith because he's done a lot of work to improve his image and win back respect after the sand paper gate; which really he had little part in, now for these bottom feeders to take a cheap swipe at him is disappointing.
Unfortunately there has been a lot of controversy to come out of the SCG Test, some stuff has been bad such as the racist abuse of Siraj (which has been found to be one person shouting out one line) the comments from Ravi Ashwin that he has been abused in every Sydney Test he has played has poured fuel on the fire, as did his comments that it's to do with how Australians are brought up. This I found amusing, imagine if Smith or Tim Paine had suggested that there was an issue with how Indian people were brought up? This would have caused an uproar and no doubt the 'Aussies are racists' call would have come out again.
Paine himself has come under fire for sledging Ashwin, again the Aussies' reputation has come back to bite them in this instance, calling someone a 'Dickhead' and telling them their team mates don't like them is hardly brutal, once again the English have jumped straight in with the 'Same old Aussies blah blah blah'. I can't believe Paine actually made an official apology for this, the only thing he should have apologised for was dropping three catches.
Thoughts?
The reaction from this has made me both angry and laugh, I laugh because I have never seen such a little incident; which really shouldn't even be an incident turn into such controversy, they've really made a mountain out of a mole hill. Even if Smith was rubbing out Pant's mark on purpose, it's not that big a deal, it's not against the rules and it's not going to effect the batsman because as I said he will retake centre many times during an innings.
I'm angry because it's given the cricket world another chance to lay the boot into Australia, for a series not involving them the English certainly have come out condemning Smith & Australia big time!!! The calls of 'The Aussies back to their old habits of cheating" have come out and to be frank have zero credibility. I feel sorry for Smith because he's done a lot of work to improve his image and win back respect after the sand paper gate; which really he had little part in, now for these bottom feeders to take a cheap swipe at him is disappointing.
Unfortunately there has been a lot of controversy to come out of the SCG Test, some stuff has been bad such as the racist abuse of Siraj (which has been found to be one person shouting out one line) the comments from Ravi Ashwin that he has been abused in every Sydney Test he has played has poured fuel on the fire, as did his comments that it's to do with how Australians are brought up. This I found amusing, imagine if Smith or Tim Paine had suggested that there was an issue with how Indian people were brought up? This would have caused an uproar and no doubt the 'Aussies are racists' call would have come out again.
Paine himself has come under fire for sledging Ashwin, again the Aussies' reputation has come back to bite them in this instance, calling someone a 'Dickhead' and telling them their team mates don't like them is hardly brutal, once again the English have jumped straight in with the 'Same old Aussies blah blah blah'. I can't believe Paine actually made an official apology for this, the only thing he should have apologised for was dropping three catches.
Thoughts?