Cricket has always been a game of narrow margins, but this is ridiculous
Andrew McGlashan07-Jan-2010Andrew Strauss has branded South Africa “malicious” for the manner in which they raised their “concerns” over the state of the ball during the third Test at Newlands. The controversy began on the third dayafter TV pictures showed Stuart Broad stepping on the ball andsubsequent images also threw the spotlight on James Anderson.”We’re not particularly happy about it, and I strongly refute thoseallegations,” Strauss said. “I do think to a certain extent that theSouth Africans announcing it to the media – without being totallyclear in their minds what they were going to do, whether they weregoing to put in a formal complaint – is a little bit malicious.”Ball-tampering is a very sensitive subject and if you’re going tomake allegations, you’ve got to be very clear or confident that isexactly what the other team were doing.”South Africa raised their concerns on the third evening with the ICCmatch referee, Roshan Mahanama, but they declined to lodge an complaint official the following morning and left the matter in thehands of Mahanama. He and the on-field umpires, Daryl Harper and TonyHill, decided no further action was needed and the ICC later said thematter was closed.But on Wednesday evening AB de Villiers came out with somehard-hitting remarks, claiming that England had been “a little bit naughty”in how they treated the ball and adding that the matter should belooked into further.”I really don’t feel there was any concerted effort on anybody’s partto alter the state of the ball,” Strauss said. “I appreciate that someof that footage didn’t look amazingly good. But I don’t think it wasanything that was malicious, particularly.”What Stuart Broad did there is not something you’d do if you wantedto alter the shape of the ball – because, just as easily, your studcould go in the shiny side and ruin your chances of swinging the ball. At no stage did the umpires feel they had any concerns about thestate of the ball. I’m very comfortable with our actions.”However, Strauss did admit that his team would have to be extracareful in the future and confirmed the umpires had spoken to himbefore the afternoon session on the third day. “If the spotlight is onyou, we’ve got to be very careful that we are beyond suspicion,” hesaid.”The umpires said there had been some TV pictures but they hadn’t seenanything themselves. It’s always a bit of a shame when these thingsrear their head, and we’ll be making sure that something like thisdoesn’t happen again.”The thrilling end to the Test, as Graham Onions and Graeme Swannsurvived the final 17 balls to secure a draw, ensured theball-tampering issue wasn’t top of the agenda after the match but itis sure to fester in the build-up to the final Test in Johannesburg asSouth Africa aim to level the series.”Towards the back-end of a series, emotions start running a little bithigh. That’s understandable,” Strauss said. “I hope today has gonesome way to making sure the game of cricket is the main story.”His opposite number, Graeme Smith, didn’t expand on his team’s earlierconcerns about the ball and aimed to calm any tensions by insistingthe series is being played in the right spirit.”The series is competitive and is being played in a hard way, but Ihave no doubt that when it is finished there will be a beer shared,”he said. “That’s the way cricket is played today and it’s the way Ilike my team to play the game. I don’t see any off-field tensions.It’s pretty tough on the field and that’s the way people want to haveit.”