Sir: South African batsman Faf du Plessis was seen on television on Friday evening, rubbing the ball on the zipper of his trouser pocket. The umpire brought this to the attention of the on-field umpires, Ian Gould and Rod Tucker, who called Graeme Smith and, after a short chat, changed the ball and awarded a five-run penalty against
South Africa. The umpires, Ian Gould and Rod Tucker, then officially reported the incident to match referee David Boon at the end of the third day’s play. Then, again on Saturday morning’s session, South African fast bowler Morne Morkel repeated the same thing by rubbing the ball over the zip on his trousers. Match referee David Boon said in a statement that du Plessis did not contest the charge and that the imposition of the fine was appropriate considering the circumstances.
This clearly shows the injustice in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) code of conduct. The replays clearly showed Faf du Plessis rubbing the ball over the zip on his trousers. After the imposition of a penalty, the vice-captain, Ab De Villiers, was adamant that South Africans do not cheat. Although Du Plessis was fined only 50 percent of his match fee for ball tampering, this is not enough because, in the past, former Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi was not only fined 50 percent of his match fee for ball tampering but was also banned for the next two T20 matches. In the history of ball tampering most big international cricketers have often been involved. They include Sachin Tendulkar from India, Stuart Broad from England and Shoaib
Akhtar from Pakistan. It is high time that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) takes some initiative against this kind of behaviour. The ICC should change the law on tampering.
M OSAMA AFNAN HANAFI
Karachi