It’s one of the game’s most emotive issues

AUSTRALIA’S Channel Nine broadcast footage of Jimmy Anderson’s left thumbnail on the ball on the fourth day’s play at the MCG.

Three ex-Aussie Test stars were in the commentary box at the time. Shane Warne said: ‘ I’m not sure you’re allowed to use your fingernail there.’ Michael Slater added: ‘That’s a no-no.’

Then Mike Hussey suggested Anderson might need to explain himself to match referee Ranjan Madugalle. NOT a lot. He was removing mud from the ball, which is legal, though it’s better to do it in front of the umpires to avoid suggestions of skulduggery. England coach Trevor Bayliss correctly dismissed the story as ‘ Pommie- bashing’. The umpires were not interested in the slightest. IT’S one of the most emotive issues in the game. Whenever pictures emerge of a fingernail anywhere near the ball, Law 42.3(b) is invoked, which says you can’t ‘interfere with any of the seams or the surface of the ball’.

The aim of tampering is to affect the ball’s flight. If you lift the seam, for instance, it creates a flap, which acts as a small rudder.

And if you rough up one side while keeping the other smooth, the rough side meets with more air resistance, and travels more slowly through the air than the shiny side, which can result in swing. YES. The aim is to rough up one side of the ball by throwing it into the abrasive parts of the square.

In theory, this should help with reverse swing, where it’s vital that one side of the ball stays dry. Every team in the world does it, so it feels a bit arbitrary when the umpires do object. REVERSE swing kicks in when the ball gets older but only if it’s dry on one side. For reasons scientists are yet to explain, it tends to swing in the opposite direction to what you would expect.

Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis won a series in England in 1992 with reverse swing and England used it successfully during the 2005 Ashes. IT’S not entirely clear. The use of sugary saliva to get a nice shine on one side of the ball is not a new tactic at international level. It’s one of those ‘ crimes’ that most teams commit, but which is only occasionally policed. YES. Australians like to mock ‘whingeing Poms’, but they’ve chosen a quiet news day to reveal that the whingeing isn’t a one-way street.