England's Craig Overton avoided a racial vilification charge from his national board after allegedly telling a Pakistan-born player to "go back to your own f---ing country".
The paceman, who is making his Test debut in Adelaide, made the racial slur while bowling in a county game for Somerset two years ago against Sussex's Ashar Zaidi, who holds a British passport. Despite the evidence from umpire Alex Wharf and Sussex's Michael Yardy, who was at the non-striker's end, Overton was not handed a level-three breach for "language that vilifies another person on the basis of race or national origin".
Instead, the England and Wales Cricket Board's Cricket Discipline Commission slapped him with a level-one charge, the lowest grading, for "using language that is obscene, offensive or insulting and/or making an obscene gesture". Overton, who denied Wharf and Yardy's claim, was given a two-game ban having previously been found guilty of two minor offences but would have escaped suspension if he had a clean record.
The ECB was accused of double standards with Overton, who had been on the radar of national selectors, after banning then-Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale for four matches after telling South Africa's Ashwell Prince to "f--- off back to your country you Kolpak f---er". "Kolpak" refers to players from EU countries or nations that have free trade treaties with the EU. Gale was found guilty of a level two offence and given a two-game ban, and suspended for another two matches for bringing the game into disrepute. The ECB denied any interference or bias in Overton's disciplinary process.
Coincidentally, the last person to make his Test debut for England in Adelaide is Ben Stokes, who also has a checkered disciplinary history.
Healy hits out at Nine
Alyssa Healy has branded as "awkward" an advertisement on Channel Nine describing the second Test as the first day/night Ashes Test. The Australian and English women played a Test under lights last month.
Her tweet sparked a robust discussion on Twitter with some saying she was being pedantic while others applauded her for pointing out a fact. Healy, whose uncle Ian is part of Nine's commentary team, also believes the national men's and women's sides will eventually be known as the Australian cricket team.
"In 10 years' time neither sport [rugby league and cricket] will have men's or women's in front of it because it's irrelevant. It's only an issue now because for some reason it needs to be differentiated," Healy wrote.
No room for Aunty
Spectators wanting to listen to the ABC or BBC calls of the Ashes series at the ground are unable to do so this summer - unless they bring their own radios. The earpieces sold at the venues include three channels that can be flicked between, with Channel 9, British broadcaster BT Sport and Triple M awarded those slots.
"We have five broadcasters and three channels," a Cricket Australia spokesman told ESPN Cricinfo. "The Nine Network is allocated one because it engages with the largest audience (8 million Australians watched the Brisbane broadcast), and BT provides English fans at the match with the English commentary.
"This year we are rotating the third slot to be fair to our radio broadcasters: the ABC and Macquarie have each had a channel for a number of years, when we had just the one TV broadcast, and this year it is Triple M's turn."
Curfew chaos
When Andrew Strauss and Trevor Bayliss decided up on introducing a curfew for the England squad for the rest of their Ashes tour, we wonder how much consideration was given to an extension of play in the evenings in Adelaide to cover for time lost due to rain. That was on the cards on Saturday, meaning that once players had left the field and recovery and media duties were completed it was no mean feat for them to be back in the hotel before the clock struck midnight.
Opening ace
Alastair Cook's low scores in this series leading into the second Test haven't been confined to the cricket ground. Enjoying a round at Kooyonga Golf Club in Adelaide during the week the England opener landed a hole in one. If that brought a smile to the face of the former captain so did the marked shift in weather here in the days before the match. Cook's ace came in 39-degree heat before a cool change kicked in later in the week, making the visitors feel very much at home.
Looking the part
While we're on the subject of conditions Joe Root's decision to put Australia in to bat meant England players were decked out in their new cream cable-knit sweaters, which wasn't the case when they were in Adelaide last month for a day-night tour game against a Cricket Australia XI. At that point the jumpers, a throwback to former times that were produced this year for the England side as part of a ??2 million ($3.54 million) a year apparel deal, had not turned up in Australia. England players instead had to wear the old white sweaters in the warm-up over their creams.