Right, I assume you know what I'm talking about : the Pakistan ball tampering.

The umpire was perfectly justified, if he saw the ball being tampered with (I don't have sky, and no news source has said exactly what they did, I assume they used an artificial substance.), to award the five run penalty.

What I hope is adressed (I'm not sure if it's the MCC or the ICC's responsibility) is the farcicle nature of the penalty, something more like instant disqualification would be more sensible. Also, the law needs to spell out in black and white what an artificial substance is. And if boiled sweets are allowed (they are used to thicken the viscosity of saliva).

havent heard about this, and what are you on about with boiled sweets?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Bowlers like to make one side of the ball rough, the other smooth, to introduce swing while the ball is spinning. It's legal to use saliva on the ball, but not anything else. Sometimes sunblock and stuff like that is used to polish the ball, or dirt is rubbed onto it to make it rougher (or the ball is scratched or picked at), and that's illegal.

right, i couldnt quite work out where saliva came from that all (i meant in the situation, not in the body!)

The umpires in question and the ICC's actions to an apparent use of ball tampering, have been in line with the code of conduct that applies to all forms of the game. They are not at fault.

The Pakistan team have reacted too strongly to an accusation thrown at them by an umpire with previous history with Asian teams. They shouldn't have stayed off the pitch but you could argue that the umpires could have consulted other parties before making the decision.

Pakistan are now trying to cover their backs, which isn't going to be possible with a few pictures that have come to light in the last few days. They should be punished, but as a team. Not just an individual. Asking for an instant disqualification from future test matches is just stupid.

Say they have been ball tampering, this would have been at most 2-3 members of the team, you can't label and tarnish a whole nation with the same brush.

Hi. I don't know much about Cricket, but I do know a bit about Baseball.
Scuffing the ball is illegal in baseball and so's using spit.

Here's the weird part. somebody did an experiment with scuffed baseballs
back in the Early 1980's. Even though the ball was able to be thrown faster,
that same scuffed ball when hit, travelled alot further.
They compared this to dimples in golf balls. Going by that research, you'd
think batters would want a scuffed up ball.
I know as a kid, the prefered baseballs were usually the old worn out ones.
They played better than new balls (within reason)

Here in Houston we had a pitcher that had a trademark pitch, the split-finger fastball. The opposing teams were always wanting checks on the ball used
becused the guy could throw the ball really fast consistently.

His career was cut short by something called Rotator Cuff Syndrome
Which is basically the ball and socket joint coming apart or something.
You go from throwing 100+ mph to having a real hard time just combing your hair when this happens

Does that type of injury occur in Cricket?

I got hit on the head with a cricket ball back in my school days when I walked across the playground, does that count?

*dribble*

I think the worst injury in cricket is somebody spilling a sherry in the stands...

i dont know about cricket; but in baseball, mud is required to be on the ball (else its .. well.. an uncontrolable flying projectile) the special mud (which was shown on dirty jobs) is rubbed on like 100 or so balls before a game so the pitcher has control over it

basically the mud is the same as bat tar.. but for the ball itself

I've copped the odd cricket ball in all sorts of interestingly painful places as a batsman. The worst injury came when I was playing as wicket-keeper though - got knocked on my arse and scored a nice concussion from our opening bowler with the new ball - we weren't fortunate enough to play on turf pitches in the under-15 league and those roll-out astroturf coverings for concrete pitches can be unpredictable, plus the pitch is, of course, bloody hard and bouncy. Had a brilliant shiner though, I looked well hard :up:

I think captain Inzamam Ul-Haq over-reacted in a big way. If you get called on something like ball-tampering in cricket, don't sulk in the change rooms and risk a forced forfeit (which is what happened - first forfeit in 120+ years). Play the game and deal with it afterwards. Regardless of whether umpire Hair was playing fair or not - it's irrelevant - Pakistan captain Ul-Haq has a responsibility to his team to secure the best result possible, and a responsibility to the game to play honourably. He let his team down by refusing to continue playing and he's brought the game into disrepute. If he believed his players had nothing to answer for he should have sucked it up and continued playing and appealed the decision afterwards. His actions are not those of a good captain or a professional.

And if the players were actually tampering with the ball, well, there's no excuse. There's no honour in cheating, especially in cricket.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Nah, the batsman is the one most likely to get hurt which is why they wear all those pads. The ball is made of solid cork and a good pace bowler will deliver it at over 90mph. People have died from cricket ball hits.

they wear pads in cricket? (wusses ) do they still use cork in england? you dont really see cork here to much anymore, now its usually a woven rubber ball inside covered by leather and then laced

-edit... nevermind! yall are throwing like flippin bocce balls!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C ... seball#Bowling.2Fpitching
atleast.. it looks heavy and bigger

Why wear pads in football (if you can even call it that?) wusses :P
hehe.

Cricket balls hurt like hell. I think they're similar in dimension to a baseball but a little heavier (142g baseball to 156g cricket ball, which is maybe 5.25 and 5.5oz in the old money), but the thing that makes them really dangerous is that they can leave the bowler's hand at over 90mph, then change direction twice before they get to the batsman, which can be diabolical. They can swing through the air and then spin off the ground at an angle you weren't expecting, either dismissing you or causing you great character-building pain. Bowlers don't mind - either of those results is fine

LOL rounders! My mum used to play that in the '50s

Quote from XCNuse :

they wear pads in cricket? (wusses )

Do you even want to start on the "American Football" vs Rugby thing?

Having been hit several times by cricket balls exceeding 60MPH (and cricket bats, but that was something else...), and having been forced to played rugby against people 2 to 4 times my size and weight and age, I'd say I'd rather go against the cricket ball any day. Much easier to dodge and you're more likely to walk away conscious

tbh I'm with you on this one; 5 runs seems a bit of a pathetic fine. But then as Kev says, thats cricket for you. Perhaps they should've offered tea to the umpire.

same with a baseball depending on how you throw it; fastball (which can reach up past 100 mph), changeup which looks real slow, but ... isn't lol; and the well-known curveball

even at a good 20mph a baseball hurts (when stopping it with a hand lol)

as for football, do you mean soccer? or american football? because in soccer of course everyone wears shin gaurds for .. well, obvious reasons (if you dont know those reason.. i dare you to find a low table and kick it really hard.. lol) but as for football; when you get 300 lb guys running around at speed.. thats some serious force going on; or the fast guys that will tackle going opposite directions, which .. is a ton of force too (and lethal depending on where you get hit)

@angel; hey.. dont forget that we DO have rugby here too

Quote from the_angry_angel :

tbh I'm with you on this one; 5 runs seems a bit of a pathetic. But then as Kev says, thats cricket for you. Perhaps they should've offered tea for the umpire.

The umpire was within his rights. I think the fault here lies with the Pakistan captain. He cost his team a victory by sulking in the change rooms when he knew full well that he could appeal the penalty after the game was complete. It's not cricket old chap!

As for the umpire's cup of tea, Test cricket breaks for tea once every afternoon (if you were playing a game that lasted for 5 days you'd want a cup of tea too). I think it's the only game in the world that has a tea break in the rules

I know why they wear pads & helmets in grid iron (to use it's non-confusing name). Same reason they should wear them in rugby, but don't. Rugby players run full tilt into each other and matches don't stop every 20 seconds either (and they can only pass backwards which makes it difficult to gain even ten yards sometimes), so they should probably wear something besides the gaffer tape the wrap around their heads to prevent their ears being ripped off So, are rugby players tougher? More used to pain? Less concerned about breaking a nail or losing a gold tooth?

Quote from XCNuse :

@angel; hey.. dont forget that we DO have rugby here too

Pft, you mean you don't all play American Football or Basketball and believe in God and never swear? How can the popular American culture TV programs lie to me?!! Why must the evil box of moving picture doom be so evil?!111oneone

lol thats like saying everyone in england HAS to drink tea, and if he doesn't.. he isn't english and deserves to be sent to.. france or somewhere

Quote from XCNuse :

they wear pads in cricket? (wusses ) do they still use cork in england? you dont really see cork here to much anymore, now its usually a woven rubber ball inside covered by leather and then laced

-edit... nevermind! yall are throwing like flippin bocce balls!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C ... seball#Bowling.2Fpitching
atleast.. it looks heavy and bigger

The only padding is two guys wear gloves, 1 has a helmet, cod piece and leg guards. That's it, as they are most likely to get hurt. None of these girly ball gloves for the whole team.

Quote from XCNuse :

lol thats like saying everyone in england HAS to drink tea, and if he doesn't.. he isn't english and deserves to be sent to.. france or somewhere

It's true. We all do drink tea, and offer more of it to the Vicar on regular occasions

It's also true that there are only 2 accents in the UK; East end of London and Upper-class twit I'll also say that Lock Stock was infact a documentary

2 accents
are you sure?
i dont believe you

there are more out there, other slang accents like everywhere else
also keep in mind how puny england is; a mere 50,000 square miles (.. damn that sounds large actually lol)
however, US (yes.. just as a joke i do sometimes call it.. us) is 3,537,441 square miles.. thats a very large number lol

as for girly gloves; (goes into insanity mode here just for the joke of it) its flippin america dude.. the colonists didn't leave england because they wanted ****in freedom of religion! no! they wanted to get away from some of the weird things done there like.... cricket.. and tea lol
(lol no personal offense, i love you brits, lol just saying it that way sounds funny, purely meant for a joke)

Quote from XCNuse :

as for girly gloves; (goes into insanity mode here just for the joke of it) its flippin america dude.. the colonists didn't leave england because they wanted ****in freedom of religion! no! they wanted to get away from some of the weird things done there like.... cricket.. and tea lol
(lol no personal offense, i love you brits, lol just saying it that way sounds funny, purely meant for a joke)

If you said that with a deep southeren accent, or a Posh English accent I'd piss myself on the spot XD

And the colonists didn't leave, they were kicked out for being too pompus. Oh jolly good old chap, tea and crumpets anyone?

What what, tally ho.

Being too pompous? I thought all those Mayflower chaps started off on a lovely cruise up to Blackpool but sort of got a bit lost, eh what?

"Who are these red-skinned chaps? They don't look like Chinamen..."
"Bollocksed if I know old bean, let's shoot them and take their moccassins."
"Tally ho!"

And that's the story of Thanksgiving

lol yes there are barren places; but would you honestly want to live out in the middle of nowhere and the closest thing is 100 some miles away? lol i didn't think so, climate reasons are why midwest areas are unpopulated

i dont know if the actual british traded with natives, but the colonists did at some point in time

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Yeah, but most of your bit is empty, or Idaho or Utah, which might aswell be empty. God, I even went to some of the more populous states like New Jersey and still you only need to travel 20 miles in any direction to find a town full of people who've never seen anyone from another country - or anyone who wasn't an immediate relation, for that matter!

You would find the island state of Tasmania fascinating, from an anthropological & genetic point of view

We share that empty centre factor with our Yank cousins. If you look at this satellite map of Oz you'll notice it's mostly a dusty orange colour in the middle with some green bits on the edges (except the NW corner). Apart from Antarctica this place is the driest on Earth. Also, at 7.6million square km we have around 20 million people. The US has 9.6 million sq km and 250+ million! Where do you fit them all?

I was born way north of Adelaide in the orange, dry crusty outback bit then moved to the hills, closer to Adelaide. Now I live in Melbourne in the green cloudy bit, near Albert Park. I've moved up in the world Doing that 800km road trip home for Christmas at the height of summer can be torture you don't have cruise control or aircon though.

FYI New Zealand, almost off screen to the lower right, is always green

And that concludes today's geography lesson

Were we talking about cricket?

..whens the test?
what i have learned:
adelaide is in sought australia (always thought it was on the northeast end) and same with sydney, i always thought it was on the northmost side

and if you look at it in a funny way.. australia looks like a whale or a dolphin

we stick most of the people in 3 places here in america: new york, california, and las vegas lol

You will be tested on Monday, it will be worth 75% of your final grade.

Other facts you might need: noone lives in the NE corner of Oz except crazy people. The greatest cricket ground in the world is the Adelaide Oval. The greatest race track in the world is Bathurst, in rural New South Wales - that's the bit with Sydney in it. Sydney is also full of crazy people on coke - like LA. Melbourne is full of sports fanatics and rock stars. And Aussie Rules Football. Adelaide is known either as the City of Churches or the City of Bizarre Murders. Brisbane is known as "Brisvegas" and people in Queensland (the bit with Brisbane in it) call anyone south of the border "Mexicans". Canberra, our capital city, isn't on the map (it's between Melbourne and Sydney). They put it out of the way and made it really boring and crap so in the event of a Revolution, the politicians would be safe from the masses because they're all somewhere else. That's also why they built Parliament House under a hill
Also: kangaroos carry rocks in their pouches (to throw at tourists with cameras) when they're not raising young, koalas drop from trees and attack your face and every toilet seat has venomous red-back spiders living under it. Don't walk through long grass or swim in the ocean because something, somehow, will try to kill you. Everywhere there are sharks. If you're lucky you may not die but part of you may be eaten. Beautiful girls abound, but you have to defeat their massive rugby-playing or cricket bat-wielding brothers in hand-to-hand combat before you can go out with them.
That's all for now. Go do your revision