Tampering furore
ENGLAND coach Trevor Bayliss launched a broadside at a bunch of former Australian Test greats after TV cameras caught seamer Jimmy Anderson taking his thumb to the ball on a day of drama at the MCG.
The umpires were forced to intervene in the opening session after the English players continually threw the ball in to the pitch from the outfield in a bid to rough it up and reverse swing their way to victory.
Umpires Sundaram Ravi and Kumar Dharmasena spoke to England skipper Joe Root after a throw from Stuart Broad bounced short of Jonny Bairstow proved one time too many, and there was another conversation during the drinks break.
Anderson was also filmed by TV cameras using his thumbnail on the ball in a way which Aussie legend Shane Warne said was a “no, no”.
“You don’t want to see nails going through the ball,” Warne said during the broadcast.
“It’s just one of those things, they’ve got it to go reverse pretty quickly out there and when they do it’s difficult to play.”
Former Test quick Mitchell Johnson also weighed in
on Twitter, surprised the tourists were getting the ball reverse swinging inside the opening 10 overs of the Aussies second innings, after which Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja were both dismissed.
Former Aussie batsmen
Mike Hussey also said the images of Anderson using his thumb were “not a good look”.
“I know there’s a lot of tactics, but there’s a bit of a line there that you shouldn’t cross in picking the seam of the ball and things like that,” Hussey told cricket.com.au.
Match officials confirmed, after rain ended play early, that both teams had been warned by the umpires for trying to scuff up the ball while fielding. But they made no issue of Anderson’s work.
Bayliss, who went straight to the umpires after the game when he saw allegations aired on TV, declared his veteran quick was simply “cleaning” the ball and gave the commentators a clip for good measure.
“I didn’t hear what they said. They were players once too. That’s all I’ll say,” Bayliss said.
“You are allowed to clean the ball.”