Cook rubbishes Gul's ball-tampering charges
Alastair Cook has rubbished Umar Gul’s accusation that England bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson have engaged in ball-tampering.
Gul was quoted by the PakPassion website claiming Anderson tampered with the ball during Pakistan’s controversial 2010 tour of England and that Broad did the same in the most recent Ashes series in Australia.
The Pakistan pacer, who has been recalled for the series against Sri Lanka in the UAE, has since clarified his comments, claiming he meant that any bowler could be accused of ball-tampering.
In a statement to Pakpassion.net, where Gul’s original comments first appeared, he clarified his remarks. “I was explaining that the ball gets scratched when it is thrown against the rough surface or hits the advertisement boards along the boundary rope. In this manner, I said, every bowler can be accused of doing it.”
But England one-day skipper Cook hit back at the 27-year-old’s claims, saying: “We certainly haven’t tampered with the ball and if he did have any complaints he should have gone to the ICC over that. I think he has almost said himself that it has been a bit of a mountain out of a molehill.”
Cook was speaking at London Heathrow airport ahead of his team’s departure to India, where they will play five 50-over games and one Twenty20 over the next four weeks. He led the ODI team to a 3-0 win over the Indians in England this summer after Andrew Strauss had skippered the team to a 5-0 Test whitewash.
Gul came out with accusations that Broad and Anderson illegally tampered with the ball after reading retired Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar’s autobiography, which contains a confession that he took part in ball tampering during his career.
Gul made his earlier comments in an interview where he talked about the art of reverse swing and how various elements of ball tampering shouldn't be included with the laws.
“Leave cricket with its traditional ways rather than making changes that would take all the charm out of it,” he said.
The recent change to using a separate ball from either end during one-day internationals, which will be implemented for the first time when Bangladesh play West Indies, could impact the role of reverse swing during 50-over matches.
Under the previous regulations the ball was changed after 34 overs and the period shortly before the switch was when the fast bowlers would sometimes start to get the ball to reverse.
However, with neither ball having no more than 25 overs of wear it will be harder for the natural deterioration to take place.