Ball Tampering - The Elephant in the room no one wants to talk about?

[Ram]

What do guys make of Afridi's claim that many teams routinely practice this shady art? Is there any of truth in it? Or is just a lame defence put forward in order to justify his act? On the related subject, should ball tampering, if committed in certain forms under strictly defined conditions, be allowed in international cricket? Figures show the last decade was the best set of 10 years that international batsmen have had in a while. There's also this constant cacophony of flattening pitches absolutely destroying the balance b/w bat and ball. Should we legalize ball tampering to set right this balance again? Allan Donald recent stirred up quite a storm when he campaigned for certain forms of ball tampering to be made legal. One of our very own members, msb1991, had also written an article on this; - http://indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=185936&

[Zap_Brannigan]

I'll just copy from the other thread What a dimwit....how can other teams do what he claimed that they do? Broken bottle in towels!!!how did the cameras not catch this? How did the umpires who check the ball catch not catch something this big ? How in the world can someone scratch the seam without looking ? He just said that everyone is a cheater!!Is ICC not going to do anything about that? Afridi should name names if he is telling the truth and has the guts. But since its neither, he needs to go lick more balls.

[graphic23]

OT: :hello: Manjrekar. What happened to Tendulkar being the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about? :hmmm: On Topic: I think Afridi should be made to back up his claims.

[Rajiv]

MM, already merged similar thread in Main Thread..unless u wanted this to be exclusive

[Ram]

Let it be a stand-alone thread at least for now Rajiv. If the discussion does not go anywhere, we can merge it later. On the topic itself, its important people realize that a certain amount of ball tampering is already permitted on the cricket field - using your saliva to maintain the shine on one side or constantly rubbing one side to preserve the shine. The question here is, how much, is too much? Come to think of it, if the fielding side is already permitted to use a foreign substance (saliva), to preserve the shine on the ball, why should it not be allowed access to other foreign substances to either a)preserve the shine one side or b)roughen the other side?

[Anakin]

I don't think you can do much nowadays, with umpires checking the ball with every dismissal and more, and of course with so many cameras around. Don't believe anything that comes out of the most retarded brain in cricket, on second thought, in the world.

[cowboysfan]

you have to be a knucklehead or just plain ignorant to tamper the ball with 27 cameras watching you.

[The Outsider]

There is no reason to "legalize" any aspect of tampering if good pitches are produced. We wouldn't be in a position to discuss the atrocities on the bowlers if every rule and regulation change over the past 15 years had not been done in favor of the batsmen. Team's routinely practice it? I really doubt it given the number of cameras monitoring every international match. Perhaps it's more common at the domestic level. There is nothing wrong with the existing laws and playing conditions - 90% of all ills afflicting cricket can be eliminated with good pitches.

[Pak_Forever]

There is no reason to "legalize" any aspect of tampering if good pitches are produced. We wouldn't be in a position to discuss the atrocities on the bowlers if every rule and regulation change over the past 15 years had not been done in favor of the batsmen. Team's routinely practice it? I really doubt it given the number of cameras monitoring every international match. Perhaps it's more common at the domestic level. There is nothing wrong with the existing laws and playing conditions - 90% of all ills afflicting cricket can be eliminated with good pitches.

Well said.

[Lurker]

The big question, to me anyway, is if you do legalize ball-tampering how do you control it? Players can start bringing in things ranging from bottle tops, glass, knife, nails, lubricants and what have you. Surely you can not say - Legalize ball tampering but only using metal, or silicone, or oil or whatever. Instead of ball tampering why not go back to the basics? make good cricketing pitches, get the cricket ground to be the size they used to be, take off bouncer regulations etc.

[Mr. Wicket]

Thank you Outsider and Lurker for the most sensible and intelligent answers, and unfortunately the logic the ICC is least likely to follow.

[vvvslaxman]

Ball tampering should have far far more stringent punishment than they have now. 2 t20 games is ridiculous punishment.

[Lurker]

Thank you Outsider and Lurker for the most sensible and intelligent answers' date=' and unfortunately the logic the ICC is least likely to follow.[/quote'] Salil, I do concur that ICC is not very likely to follow any of that. However if you think about it what comprises ICC these days? Very fair to say BCCI has enormous clout, specially in the shorter format of the game. This clout could have been used for better purposes and not merely for IPL (I think we have similar sentiments on T20 by and large). ICC has the largest responsibility to bear Yes, but BCCI has played its own part in diluting the titular agency and eroding it away without doing too many positive things for the game, aside from money of course. xxx

[Mr. Wicket]

However if you think about it what comprises ICC these days?

Seven brain cells (three still functional) shared by a whole committee of people?

[thevortex]

What do guys make of Afridi's claim that many teams routinely practice this shady art? Is there any of truth in it? Or is just a lame defence put forward in order to justify his act? On the related subject, should ball tampering, if committed in certain forms under strictly defined conditions, be allowed in international cricket? Figures show the last decade was the best set of 10 years that international batsmen have had in a while. There's also this constant cacophony of flattening pitches absolutely destroying the balance b/w bat and ball. Should we legalize ball tampering to set right this balance again? Allan Donald recent stirred up quite a storm when he campaigned for certain forms of ball tampering to be made legal. One of our very own members, msb1991, had also written an article on this; - http://indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=185936&

I would think it would be very difficult to implement a policy whereby ball tampering is legalized. In principle though I am not against it. Maybe we could have it such that it is a captain's decision - like a batting powerplay - to give the ball to the umpire for scuffing up after a certain amount of overs. So, the act gets done by the umpire - to his satisfaction. Nothing is done by the bowlers. And we can give the bowling captain 2 or 3 appeals for 'official scuffing up'. That way the batsmen too know what to expect. Yet the bowlers retain their advantage. And it becomes a strategic option. I see nothing wrong this if it is implemented in this fashion. The best thing though would be to have pitches which have some life in them. Barring that, this may be the way to go.

[Zap_Brannigan]

So if ball tampering is legalized, obviously it has to be within certain limits, but then whats gonna stop cheating pakis from doing more ? Dont be naive here people. Cheating is to get unfair advantage over the other team. It doesnt matter if the level is high or low, it will still be broken to get that advantage illegally.

[cowboysfan]

you guys are crazy if things will cricket will be better if ball tampering is legalized,what will be legal?.the pakis will still find a way to beat(or at least try )the system and they will of course get caught,this is a slippery slope which is best avoided. I would suggest a much stiffer sentence if irrefutable evidence is found of ball tampering.the sentence should in in weeks or months ,not matches.

[champ]

afridi has now officially become the dumbest cricketer in the world .. he is now defending his actions .. :WTF:

[King]

Tomorrow a player will come up and say match fixing is rampant.... should that be made legal? I know the multitude of match fixing crime as compared to ball tampering is huge but still they are all forms of cheating. I don't know how you can legalize it? Probably to be picked for the team the criteria then will start including long nails, sharp tooth, longer spike and the likes. Imagine Afridi signing up for a toothpaste and toothbrush for stronger tooth. Waqar signing up for calcium products :winky: On a similar note, they say pitch tampering is also rampant. Why not legalize that as well?

[saneindian]

When Darrel Hair said the ball in the oval test had been tampered with, Inzi, Zaheer Abbas and other Pak players started jumping up and down saying they were being labelled as cheats by the racist Hair and he didnt have any evidence at all. Now Afridi says "all other teams do it", on what basis is he accusing others of cheating? Does he have any evidence or does he want to save his own ***** by dragging others into it? This guy needs to be taught a lesson through a severe ban of minimum 1-2 years. As for the case of legalizing ball tempering, that will be opening a new can of worms. The match refs already appear helpless and such changes will make them even more feeble. As someone said in the thread earlier, the best way to deal with this is to ensure any incidents like Afridi's, Anderson's and Broad's are dealt severely with a hefty punishment (not just monetary fine but a ban of minimum 6 months). ICC needs to start acting tough and clean up the mess rather than be a silent spectator and letting the system rot even further.