Smith's Crew in SA

[LP]

I guess that if not wanting to see our national cricket team humiliated in front of the world after being caught cheating whilst on tour is "precious", then I guess some of us are guilty of that.

In context of Malo's post about the Lindwall era, it's dead easy to think things were more gentile and honest in the past. But in that era pitches were left uncovered, they were frequently watered or otherwise doctored, bats were weighted or corked, you could scrub away at the ball on the pitch, bodyline was legal, etc., etc.. For which any number of rules have since been authored to address those issues.

As an analogy, what would a modern day AFL player think about lining up on Ted Whitten, Kevin "Cowboy" Neale, Captain Blood Jack Dyer or even a more recent Neil Balme! You know, back in the good old days!

Cricket was/is no different!

It's too easy to look at the distant past with rose coloured glasses.

I heard a discussion once were Bill Lawry described a past batsmen of great skill, who when the opportunity arose would jam the cricket ball in between his front foot spikes and the bat as part of a forward defensive stroke. Yet a bowler from the same era using a fingernail on the seam was illegal.