THIS series has had a variety of controversies – sledging, late-night antics in the bar, suggestions of match-fixing and, of course, a punch-up. So it was probably due a ball-tampering row.
It duly arrived on the fourth morning of the Fourth Test.
There were mutterings about two tactics apparently being used by England to rough up the ball in order to encourage reverse swing.
First, fielders were throwing the ball on the bounce to the wicketkeeper.
And, second, there were suggestions by some TV commentators that one or more players might have been handling the ball in a suspicious fashion.
It focused on images of James Anderson with the end of his thumb close to the red leather. A couple of the Channel 9 commentators in Australia — and Michael Slater in particular — cast doubt over what Anderson was doing.
Former Aussie opener Slater said: “That’s interesting, you can’t get your nail into the ball. That’s a no-no.”
There is no way anybody could say with certainty that the TV pictures showed anything incriminating.
Anderson was quite possibly flattening down a piece of leather with the tip of his thumb or removing some dirt from the ball.
Anderson was touching the shiny side – which is the wrong side to promote reverse swing. Teams like to scuff up the already rough side.
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Ball reversing under 10 overs
#ashes
— Mitchell Johnson (@MitchJohnson398) December 29, 2017
Another thing – Anderson hardly has any nail on his thumb. He either chews his nails or self-manicures regularly.
Stuart Broad also had the ball in his hands – but he made sure he worked on it in full view of the umpires to avoid any suspicion.
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The umpires appeared to have discussions with captain Joe Root, Anderson and Stuart Broad about England’s treatment of the ball, letting them know that they were aware they were deliberately bouncing it into Jonny Bairstow’s gloves.
But if they believed it had been illegally tampered, the on-field officials would have ordered the ball to be changed.
Mitchell Johnson, England’s tormentor on the Ashes tour four years ago with 37 wickets, weighed in with a tweet saying: “Ball reversing under 10 overs.” It was accompanied by a chin-scratching emoji.
Batsman Mike Hussey added: “It didn’t look great, to be honest. There might be a little bit of a ‘please explain’ there for Jimmy Anderson.”
The ball started reverse-swinging after maybe 15 overs – which is quite early – and Aussie No.3 Usman Khawaja edged one such Anderson delivery to Bairstow.
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