Ball tampering is usually done to get extra help for the bowlers. It is usually high-profile cricketers from an International team that are involved in ball tampering.
There have been many accomplished and fan-favourite cricketers like Steve Smith, Dawid Warner, Shahid Afridi and more who have been accused of ball tampering in the past. Here are some of the most infamous ball-tampering scandals in cricket over the years.
Shahid Afridi
Shahid Afridi during Pakistan’s tour of Australia in 2009-10 was caught changing the conditions of the ball on camera. In an ODI in Perth, Afridi was caught on camera as he was biting the white ball. The decision of ball tampering looked like it was taken by Afridi alone as his other Pakistani teammates distanced them from the incident. Afridi was banned for two matches due to this incident.
Darrell Hair accuses the Pakistan team
During a test match at the Oval in 2006, umpire Darrel Hair accused the Pakistani squad of tampering with the ball. Inzamam-ul-Haq, the coach of the enraged Pakistan team, denied the claims and ordered his men to sit out the match in opposition to the umpire’s conduct. After some deliberation, it was judged that Pakistan had essentially forfeited, and England was given the match.
Darrel Hair during his tenure as an umpire has always been in the spotlight for all infamous reasons. In a game between Sri Lanka and Australia, Hair deliberately and constantly called balls bowled by Muttiah Muralitharan no-balls because of his bowling action.
Steve Smith and co
The most recent incident of ball tampering happened in 2018 in South Africa. The tour of Australia to South Africa will always be a memorable one but only for the wrong reasons. There were already many heated moments before the controversial 3rd test match.
In the first test match, Dawid Warner and Quinton De Kock went into a very heated confrontation before being separated by teammates at the players’ stairwell during the tea break on Day 4. Warner was fined 75 percent of his match fee while De Kock was fined 25 percent of his match fee. In the same match, Nathan Lyon also received a fine for dropping the ball AB de Villiers.
In the second test match, it was the fiery South African pacer, Kagiso Rabada at the receiving end as he received three demerit points for striking his shoulders with Steve Smith. The pacer was scheduled to miss the third match. After appealing to the higher authorities he only received a single demerit point and was cleared to play in the next match.
The third test match at Newlands is probably one of the most controversial cricket matches in history. Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft was caught on TV rubbing a yellow object into the ball which was later identified as sandpaper.
Captain Smith and Vice-Captain Warner were suspended and sent home along with Bancroft. Both Smith and Warner faced a 12-month ban from international cricket as well as the IPL by BCCI and Bancroft was suspended for 9 months.
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