Caught in the act: Philander is fined
Ball-tampering raises questions over the Proteas’ No 1 position
VERNON Philander’s conviction for ball-tampering raises the spectre of SA having used illegal tactics to become the No 1 ranked test team.
The integrity of performances by Dale Steyn, the world’s top bowler, could be questioned.
SA, who were test cricket’s leading team from August 2012 to May 2013, have been accused of the offence three times — albeit once by their opponents — in the last eight months, and been found guilty twice.
How many other times they might have committed one of cricket’s most despised crimes cannot be known. But if a culture of ball-tampering has infected SA, they would seem to be not as good as other, equally guilty teams at hiding the banned practice.
“[Ball-tampering] is the same as match-fixing for me,” Cricket Australia’s website quoted Ryan Harris as saying yesterday. “It’s disappointing. There’s no room for it, no need for it.
“I don’t [know] the guys [in the SA team] too well but I wouldn’t have thought teams would go out and do that deliberately. Obviously they do.”
Philander was fined 75% of his match fee — or around R22 500 — after being spotted by television cameras “changing the condition of the ball by scratching the surface with his fingers and thumb”, according to an International Cricket Council (ICC) release, during the third day of the first test against Sri Lanka in Galle on Friday.
Curiously, the footage was not broadcast. Instead, it was made available to match referee Jeff Crowe, apparently by the television crew. What prompted the broadcasters to play policeman instead of doing their jobs and showing their audience the pictures is not known.
But “the penalty was accepted by Philander without contest”, the ICC statement said, which amounts to an admission of guilt and could have helped avoid a heavier sentence. Philander stood to lose his whole match fee and be banned for the second test in Colombo next week.
Faf du Plessis was caught for the same offence in Dubai in October after footage was broadcast of him rubbing the ball on a zip in his trouser pocket during the second test against Pakistan. Philander was also shown appearing to scratch the ball, but was not charged.
Once exposed, Du Plessis
Footage was not broadcast. It was made available to the match referee
went quietly and SA did not appeal. They are also unlikely to challenge Philander’s fate.
The SA camp seem to have learnt a lesson from the Dubai debacle, which prompted Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers and team manager Mohammed Moosajee to vehemently defend. This time, neither the team nor Cricket SA have issued a statement.
In February, after the second test of Australia’s tour to SA in Port Elizabeth, David Warner said in a radio interview: “We were questioning whether or not, with every delivery, [then wicketkeeper] AB de Villiers would get the ball in his hand and, with his glove, wipe the rough side.” For that, the ICC fined Warner 15% of his match fee and reprimanded him.
In all three cases, Steyn obtained significant reverse swing with the tainted or supposedly tainted ball.
In Dubai, the umpires docked SA five penalty runs and changed the ball — the standard action in a case of ball-tampering — two overs after Steyn had started to make it veer through the air.
At St George’s Park, Steyn bowled SA to victory in a spell of 3/10 in four overs. On Friday, he took 3/8 in five overs.
So enamoured were SA with the old ball on Friday that they delayed taking the new one for 17.2 overs.