Birmingham: Former England captain Bob Willis has raked up a storm by alleging that England camp of ball tampering during their Champions Trophy group league game against Sri Lanka.
Willis, one of the expert commentators, has even accused a player of scratching the ball. He made the allegation after umpires Aleem Dar and Billy Bowden ordered one of the balls to be changed during the England-Sri Lanka match at The Oval. England skipper Alastair Cook had expressed his displeasure at having changed the ball close to the 25th over, which made batting comfortable for Sri Lankans and England bowlers unable to generate the reverse swing.
Willis went on to say that Dar knows that one individual is scratching the ball for England: “Who I am not going to name but it was because of that the ball was changed.” He went on to ask: “Have you ever heard about the batting side or the umpire complaining about the shape of the ball. If Cook did not want the ball changed, why was it then changed?”
However, England team management says that the ball was changed because it went out of shape and Cook reacted angrily to Willis’s allegation: “The ball was changed because it was out of shape. That was the umpire’s reasoning. The umpires make those decisions, so you have to accept them. Sometimes you don’t think they are the right decisions but there’s not much you can do about it.”
Willis also went on to praise Kumar Sangakkara and said that England does not have players of his class. “The bald facts are England don’t have a player with the quality of Sangakkara in their One-day XI. Cook and Trott don’t win one-day cricket matches for England. They do not score quickly enough.”
Former England coach David Lloyd, who is also a commentator, has tweeted: “Ball change is simple... umpires thought England changed the condition of the ball... which is against the laws.”
Incidentally, the first cricketer to be caught ball-tampering was former England captain Mike Atherton, when he allegedly rubbed dirt on the ball during a Test match against South Africa at Lord’s in 1994. Atherton denied ball tampering, claiming that he had dirt in his pocket which he used to dry his hands. Atherton was summoned to the match referee and was fined £2,000 for failing to disclose the dirt to the match referee.
