London: Australian cricketers are now closely observed by one and all especially where their hand goes or whether they are carrying anything with them to tamper the ball. When Australian spinner Adam Zampa took something out of his pocket to rub the ball, it caught the attention of many and soon a debate ensued in social media whether an attempt is being made to tamper the ball.
At the Oval on Sunday, former Australian skipper Steve Smith was even booed and called a cheat by the Indian crowd after he, along with David Warner and David Cameron, were suspended from international cricket for one year following their involvement in ball-tampering scandal during Cape Town Test against South Africa last year. So under these circumstances would Zampa have done such a thing? This incident happened before the 12th over as he was about to be introduced into the attack.
When Australian skipper Aaron Finch came for the post-match press conference he was asked whether he had seen pictures that have come out in the social media alleging that Zampa has tampered with the ball. He replied patiently and in detail about it. “I haven't seen the photos, but I know that he has hand warmers in his pocket. He has them every single game he plays. I honestly haven't seen them, so I can't comment too much on it. But I know for a fact that he has hand warmers every game.”
Finch then went away from the topic and explained Zampa’s unimpressive spell against the Indians. “I think he just started his spell poorly today, which gave them an opportunity to get on top of him, and when you're bowling to world-class players and they get on top of you early, it can be quite hard to come back, and for us not to be able to get wickets through that period, as well, through that middle overs, he never had the chance to really bowl at a new batter a hell of a lot, which probably was the difference in the Indian series where we managed to get some wickets up front and there would be an opportunity that he could really go to work on a new batter.”
Finch then revealed how tough it is for a leg spinner. “As a leg spinner, it's an incredibly tough craft. It's the hardest thing to do in the game. So you can forgive him for not having his best day out once every now and then. He's been exceptional for us for quite a long time now, since he's come back into the side. So yeah, I'm not concerned about that.”
Still, talk on whether Zampa tampered with the ball continued as cricket fans now feel that Australians will resort to any method to win matches since the Cape Town ball tampering incident.
