unexpected so much as the raft of opportunities it

Ten Australian athletes have been fined and given a good behaviour bond after they were charged with falsifying a document in order to attend the Boomers basketball semifinal defeat by Serbia.The charges, punishable with a jail term under Brazilian law, would not have gone before the courts for at least three weeks so Australian Olympic Commission officials moved to have expedited hearings that resulted in each athlete being given a two-year good behaviour bond and a 10,000 real fine.The court has retained the athletes passports pending payment of the fines, at which time the documents will be returned and the athletes will be free to leave Brazil. No criminal conviction has been recorded and all records of the proceeding will be expunged after two years.Ten athletes -- namely cyclists Matthew Glaetzer, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Melissa Hoskins, rugby player Ed Jenkins, archers Alec Potts and Ryan Tyack, and rowers Olympia Aldersey, Fiona Albert and Lucy Stephan -- were sent to the Venue Operations office at Carioca Arena 1 because of concerns their accreditation had been tampered with allowing them to access the venue. Glaetzer was not charged but detained as a witness, and he was not required to provide a statement to police.The group was subsequently moved to the Olympic Park police station, where the athletes were joined by Deputy Chef de Mission Fiona de Jong and Brazilian lawyers representing the AOC, and then later again they were moved to the State Major Events Court.De Jong and the lawyers explained to a prosecutor and a judge that the athletes were supporting their teammates, they were not attempting to defraud anyone, no-one had suffered a material loss and no-one was harmed as a result of the incident, the AOC said in a statement.De Jong said: The welfare of the athletes is our primary concern and the AOC will continue to provide whatever support is necessary to the athletes and their families. The AOC has launched an internal investigation as to who was responsible for not adhering to the accreditation rules.The Australian athletes walked out of the court complex just across the road from Olympic Park more than 10 hours after the start of the basketball match. The athletes looked tired and emotional as they filed out about 5.20am local time.A mistake was made this evening and athletes accessed the Olympic venue without the correct accreditation, de Jong said after the athletes were released.We have apologised for that mistake at a state special events court.We have agreed to an outcome which is the payment of a fine and a good behaviour bond for each of the athletes.The athletes were permitted entry to the stadium -- which was nowhere near capacity -- but were not sitting in the section allocated to them. Custom Tampa Bay Rays Jerseys .Y. -- Sabres forward Drew Stafford has witnessed plenty of turmoil during his eight seasons in Buffalo. 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You wont see that in any coaching manual is one of those obliquely slippery phrases that manages to deliver its core message of admiration wrapped up in a cloth of mild distaste, and is rarely heard other than on TMS or one of its many simpering fan progs. Visit a village green on an April Sunday, however, when the long shadows cast by the pavilion can preserve the frost until tea (or in this wettest of Junes, visit a field so cut up by a winters worth of football boots and a months worth of spikes, it would be flatter if freshly ploughed), and you may witness res and verba in perfect metaphorical alignment. That is to say, batsman and commentator conspire to give the term agricultural a bad name.In village cricket, of course, the commentator is a collective comprising the occupants of the office, namely the close fielders arranged around the wicketkeeper. It is traditional for manager and staff to keep up a running commentary on the batsmans efforts to send the ball hither and thither in order to hasten his own journey back to the warmth of the pavilion, and to start each idiosyncratic snippet of song that subsequently travels around the outfield in a sort of Mexican karaoke.What the f*** was that shot meant to be? is perhaps the village equivalent of the professional commentators coaching manual barb. Invariably the response runs something along the lines of four runs. After all, theres unorthodox and unorthodox, and in cricket, a shots value is ultimately considered in direct proportion to its outcome. Even by Sir Geoffrey. While the professional may deal in reverse lap cuts in between proper cricket shots, these are merely those shots that do not yet feature in the manual, but for every effort to execute an elegant cover drive effected by your typical Sunday batsman, five portmanteau shots will be fashioned from the leftovers of other sports they may have played, watched or perhaps simply heard tell. Ive seen forearm smashes, topspin lobs, 9 irons, heaves, hoicks, flails and mows, airy wafts (or elegant leaves), flat-bat smacks, and dozens of others as yet nameless. Just as there are shots not yet in the manual, there are shots that never will be, and it is these shots, these Sunday inventions, these unidentifiable mongrels, these teechniques practised in the Dark Net, that place where intention is never undone by lack of talent, it is these shots that feature in a sort of anti-manual.ddddddddddddIt is in this tome, this as-yet unwritten work of cricket lore (Wisntden, perhaps) carried in the hearts and minds of Sunday cricketers everywhere, that we gain access to the truths of this great game. And the truth is that cricket, real cricket, is not the game played by the professionals but the one played by us lot. In the professional game, orthodoxy is challenged by finely honed athletes seeking that extra fraction of a percentage of performance, as it is in these infinitesimal advantages that games are won and lost. In real cricket, in my cricket, our cricket, orthodoxy is simply challenged.We know what were meant to be doing, and while aiming to hit the top of off stump or bowling down the corridor of uncertainty is the theory, practice tells us that one of the most dangerous deliveries is the full toss. Its not simply the power of the unexpected so much as the raft of opportunities it offers the batsman. Confronted with an embarrassment of sure-fire scoring options the most common reaction is to gently lob it to the nearest fielder for catching practice. Filthy, is the word youll hear: perfect, is the truth.As batsmen, we know we ought to play straight, through the line, foot to the pitch, elbow high, and all that gallimaufry, but more often than not we simply stand and deliver. See ball, hit ball. Or in my case, see ball, leave ball, discover the bowler has one that cuts back sharply.Not a good leave, opined the office manager. Au contraire, it was an excellent leave - confident, considered, comprehensive. If only Id played my natural game, namely no foot movement, play very late, watch bowler begin celebrations, before, out of nowhere, jamming my bat down to meet the ball in desperation, then I would have lived to face the next ball. But no, I played properly. Textbook, one might say. Unfortunately the bowler had been reading the same textbook, and he was a few pages ahead of me. If only Id trusted the occult knowledge of the Dark Net. ' ' '