Aussie team fined heavily for cheating !!

 

Read this news caption in ‘News.com.au” that an Australian team has been whacked with an enormous $300,000 fine after rampant cheating was exposed. – mind wandered to various deeds of Aussie Team from ‘underarm incident’ of Trevor Chappel to various incidents.   Gundappa Vishwanath walked all the time and raised to glory at the cost of team even in recalling Bob Taylor – players like Adam Gilchrist, Aravinda DeSilva  too walked.  Aussies are notorious for their on-field behaviour including sledging, assailing and some cheating incidents but the recent Series has thus far been one of ‘bonhomie’ – more because of the interactions that player had in IPL.

The first Test of the four-match series between Australia and India, starting December 17, 2020  in Adelaide, will be a day-night affair, played with a pink ball. It's familiar territory for Australia, who are not only at home but have also played seven day-night Tests - the most by any team - since the format launched in a big way in late 2015, pitting Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide. India, meanwhile, have played just one of them, at home, against Bangladesh.

 

Recalling a Sydney test in 2008, Ricky Ponting  then fielding at silly point, dived to hold a ball that ballooned off Mahendra Singh Dhoni's pads; he got to his feet and vociferously claimed the catch, though replays at the time indicated he had grounded the ball. That could have been justified as happening in the heat of the moment - but later in the day, after play, and with the benefit of video replays to draw from, Ponting not only maintained that he had caught it clean, but suggested that an Indian journalist who had questioned the catch "shouldn't be standing there".

The dark blot ever would be the ‘ 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal’, also known as the Sandpapergate scandal,  when  during the third Test match against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town, Cameron Bancroft was caught by television cameras trying to rough up one side of the ball with sandpaper to make it swing in flight.  Captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were found to be involved and all three received unprecedented sanctions from Cricket Australia.  Now they are back and are in the thick of action.  This is no post on Cricket though involves another Sports – team being Australian !

Netball is similar to basketball although the rules, equipment and team numbers are different.  There is no dribbling; no running with the ball; 7 players; ball passed within 3 seconds; ball & basket slightly smaller; no backboard; players designated to certain areas.   According to the INF, netball is played by more than 20 million people in more than 80 countries !   Major domestic leagues in the sport include the Netball Superleague in Great Britain, Suncorp Super Netball in Australia and the ANZ Premiership in New Zealand. Four major competitions take place internationally: the quadrennial World Netball Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and the yearly Quad Series and Fast5 Series. In 1995, netball became an International Olympic Committee recognised sport, but it has not been played at the Olympics.

Suncorp Super Netball   is the premier professional netball league in Australia. The inaugural season commenced in February 2017.  The 2020 Suncorp Super Netball season was the fourth season of the premier netball league in Australia. The season was originally scheduled to commence on 2 May, though was delayed to 1 August due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The defending premiers, New South Wales Swifts were eliminated in the first week of the finals series by the eventual runners-up West Coast Fever.  The news is : Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich has been cleared of any wrongdoing after her West Coast Fever team was fined $300,000 and docked 12 points for the 2021 Super Netball season for salary cap breaches worth more than $296,000 over two years. The breaches involved undisclosed contracts which committed to payments above the competition’s Total Player Payment cap. The Fever, who have been coached by Marinkovich since 2014, breached the cap by $127,954 (19.7 per cent) in 2018 and $168,659 (25.3 per cent) in 2019.

The team West Coast Fever has been hit with a $300,000 fine and stripped of premiership points after severe salary cap breaches were exposed.  The breaches  equates to 19.7 per cent over the limit in 2018, when the club reached their maiden grand final, and 25.3 per cent over in 2019 when they finished sixth. Half the $300,000 fine has been suspended for three years, to be paid if the club flouts the Total Player Payment rules again within that time. The club has also been docked 12 premiership points for the 2021 Super Netball season - the equivalent of three games.

Breaches involved undisclosed contracts which committed to payments above the total player payment cap.  Salary caps are designed to neutralise the ability of the richest and most successful teams to dominate competitions.  Will this be applicable to some IPL Franchisees too !! The matter first came to light in June this year when Netball Australia contacted the Fever team about several worrying but minor irregularities that had come to their attention. Fever co-operated with the league to conduct an in-depth investigation, which discovered the severity of the rorting - the worst ever uncovered in Australian netball.  Netball Australia found no evidence that any players were aware of the breaches and no current coaches were involved in signing players or organising payments through undisclosed contracts.  West Coast Fever managing director Simon Taylor and president Deane Pieters quit shortly after the Fever's grand final loss to Melbourne Vixens in October. The Fever are yet to publicly name the people responsible for the rorting, with Netball WA acting chief executive Garry Chandler saying the matter was confidential. 'It's a very dark day for the club - everybody involved in and around the club is completely devastated,' said Chandler, according to news.com.au.

They are not the first club to be fined.  Earlier this year, the Adelaide Thunderbirds were fined $100,000 - of which $90,000 was suspended - for breaching the 2019 total player payments cap by $22,698.  It is stated that Adelaide and Perth were two very different situations, 'The reason why this one is particularly harsh is because it was over a number of seasons, it was significant, and so there was definitely some deliberate action here.  .     

Interesting ! 

With regards – S.  Sampathkumar
16.12.2020