Pakistani fast-bowling legend Wasim Akram has weighed in on the renewed 2018 ball-tampering controversy, saying that while the Australian team may not have known what was happening at the time, an experienced bowler would instantly recognise the difference between natural wear and sandpaper damage.
In a video posted on social media on Saturday from Melbourne, where his family is based, Wasim said that he had been following the row for the past couple of weeks. It was triggered by Usman Khawaja’s book “Sabr”, in which the former Australian opener made claims about what happened in South Africa eight years ago.
Wasim noted that Pat Cummins, whom he called “a very close friend” and one of the top leaders in world cricket, had said he did not know about it. “Probably the team didn’t know at the time what was happening, in my opinion,” Wasim said, adding that his view could be right or wrong.
He then spoke from a bowler’s perspective. Whether it is the fifth, tenth or fiftieth over, he said, a bowler looks after the ball and shines one side of it. On a dry square, a ball that bounces once will pick up a scratch or two. “But the sandpaper scratch is totally different than the one-bounce scratch,” he observed.
Wasim suggested cricket fans could test it by taking a semi-new ball, rubbing sandpaper on it and comparing the marks. “As a bowler, especially an experienced bowler, I have a look at the ball and I’ll know straight away something is not right,” he stated.
He stressed that he was not siding with anybody. Australians, he said, are known for their straightforwardness, their hardness on and off the field and, above all, their honesty. “I think that’s what the whole nation has been under stress a bit, obviously eight years ago and back to it again. I hope things get sorted out. This is my take on this issue.”
At Newlands in Cape Town in 2018, Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera using sandpaper on the ball. Then-captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and Bancroft were suspended, while Cricket Australia carried out a wider review of the team’s culture.
Khawaja has alleged that knowledge of the plan was widespread in the dressing room, including among the bowlers.
At a lengthy press conference in Sydney on Friday, Cummins rejected the claims as “100 per cent wrong” and “complete and utter nonsense.” He said he had no knowledge of sandpaper being taken onto the field and denied being the architect of the plan.
Cricket Australia has ruled out reopening its investigation into the 2018 scandal despite the fresh allegations.
