Sunday 25th March
SHE SAID:
With the cricket likely to be all over today, Geoff and Ramzie were off on their own, getting koeksisters for breakfast before the start of the game.
I had a quiet morning in then out with Tina and the girls to the Waterfront to check out the Zeitz MOCAA Museum. It is in an old grain silo. Quite an interesting concept for a museum, though the art was mainly quite weird to me.
Geoff was rather down with the cricket. The Aussies were all out for just over 100, so there will not be a day 5.
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| Trying out the Spinning Top Seats |
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No I didn't feel safe...as the face tells you!
     
 
  
    
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HE SAID:
The breakfast we collected on the way to Newlands was Ramzie's suggestion, and very different to me. We each had a small meat pie, a samosa, and a koeksister. They were all yummy, but porridge it ain't.
After the lunch break, having a wander around Newlands to get some photos, I was asked by an SABC TV reporter for a quick vox pop video on my thoughts regarding the ball tampering. I have no idea whether it will be broadcast.
The Aussies lost 10 wickets for 50 runs in less than one session. Yesterday's hugely embarrassing debacle was probably at least partly to blame (I hope).
After a bit of contemplation I wrote a little piece on my thoughts of yesterday's cricket disaster:
The Tampered Mind
It was obvious from my seat on the Western side of Newlands Cricket Ground that something had occurred on day 3 of the third test against South Africa. In the middle session of play both umpires delayed play for a short while to confer near the middle of the pitch before having a brief chat with Cameron Bancroft.
Sitting with my friend Ramzie, and with the picturesque Table Mountain behind us, we were unable to see the main scoreboard, so did not see that one of the many TV cameras at the ground had picked up some strange activity from an Australian fielder. A murmur had started amongst the spectators, some of whom started calling “Sandpaper! Sandpaper!”.
At cricket matches when I seek a bit of information or some news, or a description of what had occurred on the field, I usually head to Cricinfo, a dedicated cricket site that has a ball by ball description of matches. On this occasion, the description of why the umpires had spoken with Bancroft was not clear to me, but very soon afterward Ramzie showed me a South African news web page with photos of Bancroft holding something in his hand while rubbing the match ball, and then putting whatever had been rubbed on the ball down the front of his trousers. This looked very bad from my perspective, and I mentioned to Ramzie that we’ll hear more about this incident. And we did. In a spectacularly embarrassing way!
For the rest of the day’s play, and well into the evening, I monitored cricket and news web sites, and watched in disbelief many times the TV replays of Bancroft’s actions, before reading that Australian Cricket Captain Steve Smith had owned up to the ball tampering tactic as a planned way by some of the Australian team to get the ball to swing when bowling to the South Africans.
I had an awful feeling for the rest of that evening, waking a few times during the night wondering why it had happened, and also what the fallout would be.
My wife and I had travelled to South Africa from Australia for several reasons, but the key reason for me was that I could watch Australia play test cricket. To have this ball tampering scandal occur is very disheartening, even for a dedicated follower, and is also humiliating, embarrassing, shameful, and very frustrating.
The day after the scandal emerged three minor incidents occurred before play had started for the day that I found memorable. Firstly, upon passing through the entry gate of Newlands I observed and commented to Ramzie that I could see no other Australian supporters yet, despite there being hundreds on previous days. Secondly, as we waited for a coffee to take along to our seats a young girl turned from collecting her coffee at the stall counter, saw me, stopped, looked me up and down in my Aussie supporter shirt and cap, and said “Good luck”. The third incident was only a minute or two later as we walked from the coffee outlet toward our seats. Still unable to observe any other Australian supporters I jokingly said that I may have to sit next to a policeman! And a fellow walking nearby just burst out laughing and nodding.
When play started at 10am, and several times throughout the day, I used my binoculars to scan the crowd for the missing Aussie supporters, and I came up with grand total of 6 adults in the obvious Australian wattle yellow supporter shirts. Just six! Even the large groups of Australians on packaged tours were in mufti, rather than the usual supporter shirts. This lack of willingness to show support is understandable for some, I suppose. But for hundreds of previously proud supporters to hide their allegiances was a surprise. It made me feel brave in a strange way.
On top of the many Australian cricket supporters who would be rather upset by current events, there are everyday people all over the world upset, angry, embarrassed, or put out in some way because of this. One man I feel very sorry for is Achmed, the 87 year old father of our South African hosts in Cape Town, who had previously extolled the virtues of Australian cricket, and expressed his admiration for the attacking batting the Australians generally display. But, seeing him Sunday evening after Australia lost 10 wickets for 50 runs after the tea break on the day following the discovery of the plan to cheat by changing how the ball behaves in flight, he looked shattered. He looked at me in disbelief, as if it was not possible to have someone he held in such high esteem be shown to be so crooked. The cricketing world was not fair to Achmed on Sunday March 25 2018. And I think I know how he feels.
The breakfast we collected on the way to Newlands was Ramzie's suggestion, and very different to me. We each had a small meat pie, a samosa, and a koeksister. They were all yummy, but porridge it ain't.
After the lunch break, having a wander around Newlands to get some photos, I was asked by an SABC TV reporter for a quick vox pop video on my thoughts regarding the ball tampering. I have no idea whether it will be broadcast.
The Aussies lost 10 wickets for 50 runs in less than one session. Yesterday's hugely embarrassing debacle was probably at least partly to blame (I hope).
After a bit of contemplation I wrote a little piece on my thoughts of yesterday's cricket disaster:
The Tampered Mind
It was obvious from my seat on the Western side of Newlands Cricket Ground that something had occurred on day 3 of the third test against South Africa. In the middle session of play both umpires delayed play for a short while to confer near the middle of the pitch before having a brief chat with Cameron Bancroft.
Sitting with my friend Ramzie, and with the picturesque Table Mountain behind us, we were unable to see the main scoreboard, so did not see that one of the many TV cameras at the ground had picked up some strange activity from an Australian fielder. A murmur had started amongst the spectators, some of whom started calling “Sandpaper! Sandpaper!”.
At cricket matches when I seek a bit of information or some news, or a description of what had occurred on the field, I usually head to Cricinfo, a dedicated cricket site that has a ball by ball description of matches. On this occasion, the description of why the umpires had spoken with Bancroft was not clear to me, but very soon afterward Ramzie showed me a South African news web page with photos of Bancroft holding something in his hand while rubbing the match ball, and then putting whatever had been rubbed on the ball down the front of his trousers. This looked very bad from my perspective, and I mentioned to Ramzie that we’ll hear more about this incident. And we did. In a spectacularly embarrassing way!
For the rest of the day’s play, and well into the evening, I monitored cricket and news web sites, and watched in disbelief many times the TV replays of Bancroft’s actions, before reading that Australian Cricket Captain Steve Smith had owned up to the ball tampering tactic as a planned way by some of the Australian team to get the ball to swing when bowling to the South Africans.
I had an awful feeling for the rest of that evening, waking a few times during the night wondering why it had happened, and also what the fallout would be.
My wife and I had travelled to South Africa from Australia for several reasons, but the key reason for me was that I could watch Australia play test cricket. To have this ball tampering scandal occur is very disheartening, even for a dedicated follower, and is also humiliating, embarrassing, shameful, and very frustrating.
The day after the scandal emerged three minor incidents occurred before play had started for the day that I found memorable. Firstly, upon passing through the entry gate of Newlands I observed and commented to Ramzie that I could see no other Australian supporters yet, despite there being hundreds on previous days. Secondly, as we waited for a coffee to take along to our seats a young girl turned from collecting her coffee at the stall counter, saw me, stopped, looked me up and down in my Aussie supporter shirt and cap, and said “Good luck”. The third incident was only a minute or two later as we walked from the coffee outlet toward our seats. Still unable to observe any other Australian supporters I jokingly said that I may have to sit next to a policeman! And a fellow walking nearby just burst out laughing and nodding.
When play started at 10am, and several times throughout the day, I used my binoculars to scan the crowd for the missing Aussie supporters, and I came up with grand total of 6 adults in the obvious Australian wattle yellow supporter shirts. Just six! Even the large groups of Australians on packaged tours were in mufti, rather than the usual supporter shirts. This lack of willingness to show support is understandable for some, I suppose. But for hundreds of previously proud supporters to hide their allegiances was a surprise. It made me feel brave in a strange way.
On top of the many Australian cricket supporters who would be rather upset by current events, there are everyday people all over the world upset, angry, embarrassed, or put out in some way because of this. One man I feel very sorry for is Achmed, the 87 year old father of our South African hosts in Cape Town, who had previously extolled the virtues of Australian cricket, and expressed his admiration for the attacking batting the Australians generally display. But, seeing him Sunday evening after Australia lost 10 wickets for 50 runs after the tea break on the day following the discovery of the plan to cheat by changing how the ball behaves in flight, he looked shattered. He looked at me in disbelief, as if it was not possible to have someone he held in such high esteem be shown to be so crooked. The cricketing world was not fair to Achmed on Sunday March 25 2018. And I think I know how he feels.
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