Two former England captains have their take on the subject of ball tampering raised but not ranted against by the South Africans in the third Test at Newlands, Cape Town against Stuart Broad and James Anderson.
The two fast bowlers were caught on television doing what appeared to be illegal with the ball even as South Africa were raising a furore with the bat. But South Africa, after being it to the notice of the public at the end of the third day’s play surprisingly refused to lodge a complaint with the match referee and the ICC.
The ICC was only too happy to state that since no formal complaint was lodged within the stipulated time, the matter was “closed”. But Michael Atherton, who was accused himself of rubbing dirt onto the ball during the 1994 South African tour of England at Lord’s where South Africa won the match by a whopping margin riding high on their captain Kepler Wessels’ century, felt the South Africans had acted bizarrely by raising an issue and then not following through. He felt that the two fast bowlers in question had suffered a “trial by television.”
Michael Vaughan felt the England bowlers were pretty “lucky” that not even a reprimand, leave alone a ban, was incurred for what he felt was obvious action on the part of the England team looking to alter the ball’s condition for some desperate assistance.
Vaughan also went on to accuse the ICC of not taking decisive action to investigate and tackle the issue once it was raised and that it was a matter of double standards where Pakistan bowlers such as Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif would have been pulled up, complaint or no complaint, should they have been involved.
Marcus Trescothick had earlier alleged in his book that (under Vaughan’s regime possibly), the England cricketers indulged in sweet mints to try and alter the ball and cause it to reverse swing.
Certain this is a reverse from South Africa that will require some explaining and why is the ICC happy to have its tail between its legs after such a serious matter has been raised?
The minty flavour of leather and reverse swing
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