While the Australian cricket team are apparently so bad their reputation is better off when they do not play entirely, South African skipper Faf du Plessis has just been found guilty of ball tampering – and yet has gotten off very lightly indeed.
The International Cricket Council took Du Plessis to court for a casual three hours after he was seen manipulating the conditions of the cricket ball with mints at the Commonwealth Bank Test against Australia last week. Mints, as in lollies. As in how can this sport even be real?
This all came to be when camera footage showed Du Plessis sticking his finger in his mouth to get some sweet mint residue and rub it on the ball for extra sheen. He repeated the same motion at least a couple more times. It’s all quite sexual really.
Du Plessis pleaded not guilty, but has still been cleared to play in the Adelaide day-night test. The only real loss he actually suffered was losing his match fee for that one game. I am not sure exactly how much that might be, but considering male athletes get paid disturbingly superfluous amounts, I’m assuming shitloads.
The rest of the South African cricket team stand by their captain. Opener Hashim Asla commented on the accusations:
“The allegation against Faf was… a really ridiculous thing. As a team, we’re standing strong, we’ve done nothing wrong. It’s basically a joke.”
Nevertheless, it’s a pretty minimal (and unexpected) punishment, considering, y’know, he was actually found to be guilty and all that. Thank god for the International Cricket Council, right? I don’t know who would be keeping the world in order if it wasn’t for them.
Source: Cricket.com.au.
Photo: Channel 9.
