The first round of ICC T20 World Cup concluded overnight, with Sri Lanka and Namibia finishing first and second respectively in Group A, while Scotland topped Ground B with Bangladesh coming second.
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will join Australia’s Group 1 in Super 12, alongside England, West Indies and South Africa. Scotland and Namibia join Group 2 alongside India, Afghanistan, New Zealand and Pakistan.
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Cannot believe Ireland flopped last night
Australia beat South Africa by five wickets in their opening T20 World Cup clash at Abu Dhabi last night, but without a scare. After losing three early wickets in the run chase, it was Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade to steer their side to the 119 run target with two balls to spare.
Later, England bowled out West Indies for just 55 and won the match by six wickets.
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Pakistan crushes arch rivals India by 10 wickets overnight
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Ben Stokes is joining the England squad for the upcoming Ashes series, after recovering from the finger fracture he suffered in April.
Quinton de Kock’s withdrawal and the CSA statement came after media reports highlighted a photo of South Africa players prior to their game against Australia on Saturday, which showed the Proteas taking varied approaches to the protest against racism.
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Yeah very sensitive topic especially in South Africa.
At the end of the day , it should be an individual’s decision in my opinion.
I feel sorry for Quinton de Kock. Whilst I support Black Lives Matter, serious issues like this one shouldn’t be brought into sport IMO.
If he doesn’t want to take a knee, that’s fine, it’s his decision. Now he’s pulled out of the tournament, so let’s hope South Africa can continue to perform well without him.
Do you know much about Peter Norman or Cathy Freeman or Basil D’Oliveira or Lloyd McDermott and how politics impacted on their sporting careers?
Yes, of course, but at the end of the day, I feel uncomfortable with the idea of politics mixing with sport. This situation here is quite different to the ones faced by the sportspeople you mentioned.
Look at the same-sex marriage debate around four years ago which saw the AFL briefly change the logo outside their HQ to the word ‘YES’. As a sporting league, they shouldn’t be showing support to either side of any political campaign.
Same goes for cricket, South Africa Cricket shouldn’t have to demand players take a knee if they don’t want to. They are forcing their views onto the players.
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South Africa is basically the case in point of how important sport can be to political change. There is prestige to global events and performing well as a nation - it’s why the soviet states drugged themselves to the extreme to try and beat the west, it’s why there’s pressure to boycott the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.
For South Africa’s cricket team, their struggles to integrate their team, even recently, and to make cricket be seen as not just a white sport, mean that having the members representing their team not able to make a unified statement against racial discrimination is a bad look.
The members of the team can have their own views, and as far as selection domestically or in various leagues, it should have no impact, but if you’re representing your nation, one with South Africa’s history, it’s not just meaningless symbolism to be the odd one out.
A team representing a nation should be representative of the values of that nation.
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I think it’s a fine line. No problem with organisations showing their support for causes and endorsing those things and making it part of their charter etc but it’s another to demand an employee perform a physical act of showing their support to the cause.
To make it clear, I support BLM.
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Very strong similarities between what happened to Norman and what de Koch is experiencing. Just that the stances appear to be reversed. Both white men, both taking a stance, one upset conservatives, one looks like being turned into a poster boy by them.
That was made political by its minority of opponents clutching at straws and they drowned in their hate on fellow humans. But I’m hardly surprised it upset the snowflake brigade.
Quinton’s full statement:
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Australia won their second match in T20 World Cup, beating Sri Lanka by seven wickets in Dubai overnight, with three overs to spare. After struggling with batting in recent months, David Warner resorted to practice on concrete pitches, and it worked for him, smashing 65 runs from 42 balls.
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Australia were humiliated by the Poms overnight in their T20 World Cup clash, all out for 125.
England easily hosed it down, with more than 8 overs and 8 wickets to spare.
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England’s net run rate is extraordinarily high at 3.948.
Australia will need to beat Bangladesh (who have been eliminated with three straight losses) and West Indies convincingly, to finish second in their group and improve their world rankings in the process.
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South Africa still need to play England
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was great to see .
Lol:joy:
So someone disagrees with your view and they are snowflakes ?
I have always believed companies should stay out of political and ceep clear of religious promotion abd bashing and remain nutersl but if they want to get involved in political spectacles then that is right to do so. It’s not end of the world .