The Cheaters of Cricket- Australia

As of 2021, Australia is the only team with winning five cricket Worldcups. Cricket Australia which is known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. There are so many icons in the Australian Cricket team like David Warner, Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Marcus Harris, Ricky Ponting, Brad Haddin, Shane Watson, Glane Maxwell, Brett Lee, and Scott Boland. There are many cheating and slagging scandals besides the glorious proud matches in Australian Cricket history.

In this article, we will discuss the devastating, shameful incidents of Australian Cricket.

• Australia VS New Zealand:

The ‘underarm incident’ between Australia and New Zealand is among the most contentious incidents in cricket history. On February 1981, there was an ODI match hosted at Melbourne Cricket Ground between the two teams Australia and New Zealand. In the third series of the match, Australia opened the innings and finished with 235 for 4 in 50 overs. In response, New Zealand reached 229 for 8 after 49 overs and 5 balls, which meant they needed to score 6 off the game’s final ball. 

According to the instruction of Australia’s team captain and older brother Greg Chappell, Trevor Chappell delivered the final ball underarm without pitching, all the way along the ground. New Zealand batsman McKechnie did not score even a single run for that tactic. Therefore Australia won the match by 6 runs but that incident left a very disgraceful impact on the history of Australian Cricket.

• Australia VS India:

On January 2008, there was a test series hosted between India and Australia in Sydney, one of cricket’s harshest disputes, largely recognized for the “Monkeygate” controversy, broke out during this period. With Sachin Tendulkar at the plate, India was batting and facing the quick bowling all-arounder Shane Watson of Australia.

Ricky Ponting, the captain of the Australian side, defended his team’s actions after initially claiming a catch even though TV replays made it obvious that the ball had touched the grass. But the umpire Billy Bowden declared it as an out.

• Australia VS South Africa:

Perhaps the most notorious cheating controversy in Australian cricket history was the ball-tampering affair that shook the sport in 2018. Cameron Bancroft of Australia was seen on camera using sandpaper to change the condition of the ball during the third Test match against South Africa.

After it was discovered that vice-captain David Warner and captain Steve Smith were also complicit, Cricket Australia handed down unprecedented punishments to the trio. Darren Lehmann, the coach of Australia, declared his resignation in the wake of the incident even though it was later determined he had not been personally involved. An extensive reorganization of the team’s culture resulted from the episode, which damaged Australian cricket’s reputation.

• Australia VS England:

In The Ashes on Sunday, Australia was accused of “cheating” after Jonny Bairstow was controversially run out. The Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey used the opportunity to throw the ball at the stumps to dismiss the England batsman after Bairstow had assumed the ball was dead at the conclusion of an over and vacated his crease.

Also Read: History And Evolution Of Cricket Balls: From The 18th Century To Today

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