Cricket: Ball-tampering controversy in Cape town comment count

• Experiences
• January 06, 2010 ∥
• By Roy Barford

Stuart Broad. Photo courtesy Chris Frewin

While England’s cricketers took a pasting from the South African batsmen on day three in Cape Town’s heat yesterday, they were also accused of trying to cheat.

Proteas’ media officer Michael Owen-Smith told News 24 yesterday that the South Africans had lodged a complaint with match referee Roshan Mahanama, that England seamer Stuart Broad had deliberately scuffed the ball with his spikes while fielding it. Various other media have also made mention of television footage of James Anderson picking at the ball with his fingers.

It emerged this morning however that no written complain was issued. According to The Telegraph, one of Britain’s leading newspapers, The ICC (International Cricket Council) issued a statement declaring the matter closed as far as they were concerned, as a written complaint had not been made before the start of play on day four.

According to the Marylebone Cricket Club laws that govern the game, law 42.3 prevents players from “rubbing the ball on the ground, interfering with its seam or surface, or using any implement that can alter the condition of the ball to thereby gain unfair advantage”.

Popular cricketing opinion during the past few decades is that unnaturally altering the condition of the ball gives bowlers an unfair advantage, as they are able to achieve more swing, and at times achieve reverse swing, which they would not normally be able to do.

In 2006, Pakistan became the first team to forfeit a match in the 132 years of test cricket, after umpire Darryl Hair accused the team of tampering with the ball during their match against England at The Oval.

The current situation at Newlands in Cape Town will continue to be hotly debated, particularly because of the way England, and Broad in particular, have been able to achieve such great reverse swing during this series, which they currently lead 1-0.

What has further intensified this particular debate, is that Broad’s father, Chris, is one of the International Cricket Council’s most senior match referees. Even before the ball-tampering allegations, Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar suggested that Broad junior often escaped disciplinary action over his questioning of umpires’ decisions, because of his father’s position.

Broad senior was no stranger to controversy in his days playing for England either. In 1987, during a match against Pakistan in Lahore, Broad refused to leave the field after being given out, and stood his ground until his batting partner Graham Gooch asked him to leave. A year later, he smashed his stumps out of the ground when he was dismissed during a match against Australia in Sydney.