***Official*** Spot-Fixing Scandal

[Jarquis]

Roughing up one side to generate swing, conventional or reverse, is hardly a revolutionary idea.

 

[Jacknife]

I don't buy trapping the ball with spikes as attempted tampering. If memory serves there was a beat up when Broad was pictured doing the same thing.

If either Shoaib or Broad is good enough to trap a cricket ball and make sure they scuff the right side they're playing the wrong sport.

Agree with fred tho; hardly match-fixing, is it? Although it's come to something when ball-tampering seems a relatively harmless little vice.

I agree with what your saying about treading on the ball,but its the context of which it was done,Broad stopped a rolling ball, that was hit back to him by the batsman,obviously with no video of Akthar it's hard to tell what he was doing,but the paper claimed, Shoaib prepared to bowl to Paul Collingwood then stood on it,which would be outrageously blatant to do if he placed the ball on the floor and stood on it.

 

[Jacknife]

Roughing up one side to generate swing, conventional or reverse, is hardly a revolutionary idea.

Exactly,its about getting one side of the ball roughed up while the other has a shine,standard stuff.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Roughing up one side to generate swing, conventional or reverse, is hardly a revolutionary idea.

Roughing up one side and picking at one side are entirely different things. Besides, he'd have to be a genius to ensure that he could drop the ball and step on the exact same side he wanted to tamper with.

 

[Jono]

Doesn't matter whether he's successful in doing it, the attempt to ball tamper is illegal.

Plus, pushing your thumb nail into a side of the ball is ball tampering in every person's language.

I can't imagine how he'd benefit from having the side of the ball scratched up tbh. Isn't the purpose of tampering with the ball to get the seam prominent so you can make it talk?

There are plenty of purposes to ball tamper. There isn't 'one illegal way' and the rest are fine.

Changing the condition of one side, whether through bottle caps, nails, lollies directly on the surface (i.e. Dravid in Aust 2003) is all ball tampering. Yes there are different levels of seriousness, but they're all tampering.

Even though Dravid didn't mean to put the lolly on the ball, he still did it, and was punished accordingly.

 

[GIMH]

Quote from my mate, "looks like half of them are cheating to lose and half are cheating to win so I guess it balances out."

 

[Jono]

 

[Sanz]

Nah come on. If you scratch the side of a ball it is still ball tampering, as it can affect the swing of the ball. Not saying he did it, but it's hardly a 'non-story'.

It is the media's job to expose stuff like this. It may be a non-issue, but purely on those pictures there is a story in it.

I am not denying it, just want to have more evidence (e.g. the video).

 

[Jono]

Yeah sure, but my point is, IF Shoaib scratches the side of the ball, it is ball tampering. GI Joe was suggesting that even if he did it, it wasn't. Which I was disputing.

Your reply earlier suggested that it'd only be deemed ball tampering by us because the UK tabloid had pictures of him doing it, and if they didn't it wouldn't otherwise be true.

Fair enough if that's not what you meant, but it read that way.

 

[pasag]

GIMH

 

[G.I.Joe]

Doesn't matter whether he's successful in doing it, the attempt to ball tamper is illegal.

Plus, pushing your thumb nail into a side of the ball is ball tampering in every person's language.


There are plenty of purposes to ball tamper. There isn't 'one illegal way' and the rest are fine.

Okay, lets go purely technical and accept that it is ball tampering, despite the fact that there isn't any specific advantage to be gained from picking at the side of a ball.

Now, from those pictures, could you prove that there was pressure from the thumbnail into the surface of the ball sufficient enough to alter its condition, as opposed to him just gripping it harmlessly between his thumb and fingers? Why not just wait for some video footage instead of getting the pitchforks out?

I don't buy it. Picking at the seam, yes, that's understandable. Picking at the sides? That achieves nowhere near the same effect as roughing up the sides by traditional and accepted methods. Its like picking your nose as opposed to sandpapering it. Not the same thing. You're not going to achieve the required roughness of the side unless you make multiple micro picks all over the surface. A couple of picks isn't going to do anything for you. Shoaib's either an idiot who doesn't know the basics, or this is plain sensationalism.

 

[Fusion]

Okay, lets go purely technical and accept that it is ball tampering, despite the fact that there isn't any specific advantage to be gained from picking at the side of a ball.

Now, from those pictures, could you prove that there was pressure from the thumbnail into the surface of the ball sufficient enough to alter its condition, as opposed to him just gripping it harmlessly between his thumb and fingers? Why not just wait for some video footage instead of getting the pitchforks out?

I don't buy it. Picking at the seam, yes, that's understandable. Picking at the sides? That achieves nowhere near the same effect as roughing up the sides by traditional and accepted methods. Its like picking your nose as opposed to sandpapering it. Not the same thing. You're not going to achieve the required roughness of the side unless you make multiple micro picks all over the surface. A couple of picks isn't going to do anything for you. Shoaib's either an idiot who doesn't know the basics, or this is plain sensationalism.

AWTA by soooo much. You need the video evidence before coming to any kind of a conclusion. We have no idea if this was a split second motion of his thumb grazing the ball or was he attempting to dig a hole in the ball. As for the one pic where it’s alleged he “stands on” the ball, it’s not even clear his foot is on the ball! Pictures, taken in the 2D realm, can often be deceptive when it comes to illustrating distance between two objects. For all we know, Shoaib’s foot could’ve been several meters away from the ball in that picture. Any who, it’s sensationalist journalism (as expected from the source) until proper video footage is examined.

 

[PhoenixFire]

AWTA by soooo much. You need the video evidence before coming to any kind of a conclusion. We have no idea if this was a split second motion of his thumb grazing the ball or was he attempting to dig a hole in the ball. As for the one pic where it’s alleged he “stands on” the ball, it’s not even clear his foot is on the ball! Pictures, taken in the 2D realm, can often be deceptive when it comes to illustrating distance between two objects. For all we know, Shoaib’s foot could’ve been several meters away from the ball in that picture. Any who, it’s sensationalist journalism (as expected from the source) until proper video footage is examined.

Definitely agree with this. It's impossible to tell anything from a freeze-frame or still shot like this, you have absolutely no idea what he is doing to the ball until you get a moving shot.

Reckon this is just a mountain out of a mole hill, I reckon you could get 1000s of pictures from every ODI that would apparently show someone picking at the ball just from how they are holding it.

 

[Langeveldt]

You'd've thought that if we're going to import Saffas into our team they'd at least be man enough to lash out with fists or maybe a bat or a pair of spikes. A batting pad? C'mon Trotty, you can do better than that

These Soutpiele can let the pads do the talking

 

[Cruxdude]

AWTA by soooo much. You need the video evidence before coming to any kind of a conclusion. We have no idea if this was a split second motion of his thumb grazing the ball or was he attempting to dig a hole in the ball. As for the one pic where it’s alleged he “stands on” the ball, it’s not even clear his foot is on the ball! Pictures, taken in the 2D realm, can often be deceptive when it comes to illustrating distance between two objects. For all we know, Shoaib’s foot could’ve been several meters away from the ball in that picture. Any who, it’s sensationalist journalism (as expected from the source) until proper video footage is examined.

The standing on ball photo looks similar to Lampard screwing Terry photo TBF.

 

[zaremba]

Now, from those pictures, could you prove that there was pressure from the thumbnail into the surface of the ball sufficient enough to alter its condition, as opposed to him just gripping it harmlessly between his thumb and fingers? Why not just wait for some video footage instead of getting the pitchforks out?

I agree we should suspend judgment until we see the video, particularly as regards the stamping allegation. But I think we're kidding ourselves if we pretend that the thumb-gouging photos aren't pretty damning in themselves.

But ultimately I don't really care that much. Shoaib has bowled brilliantly in the ODIs, he's lit up the series, and my view of cricketing skullduggery has been rather shifted by other events in recent weeks.

Besides which the philosophy of GIMH's mate (post of the year, btw) has chilled me out no end.

 

[Burgey]

Quote from my mate, "looks like half of them are cheating to lose and half are cheating to win so I guess it balances out."

Brilliant.

Edit: your mate, obviously. Not you, ****.

 

[Furball]

The laws of the game allow a side to attempt to maintain the ball's original condition.

Can anyone then explain to me why shining one side of the ball is perfectly legal, but picking the seam if it goes flat isn't?

 

[irottev]

The fact is, Akhtar is trying to ball tamper. No matter how bad it is he's trying to cheat. Pakistan aren't learning. It's time for the ICC to grow a pair and do something about this because it escalates with every passing game.

Akhtar is a drug cheat also. They're just cheats and have absolutely no ethics or morals.

 

[Flem274*]

Pakistan have been suspected of playing with the ball for years. I remember a few years back the touring NZ side got their hands on a ball used by the quicks before the ball boys got their hands on it and allegedly there were scratches and marks which, allegedly, could be replicated with a bottlecap.

Then the NZ team copied and Pringle got all that swing. Then they admitted it and got away scott free.

Ridiculous chain of events really, and the ICC did nothing about either side.