The mention of ball-tampering brought a wry smile on Anil Kumble’s face. Even before the scribe could complete the question during Thursday’s press-conference here, the chief coach knew what was coming.
After all, two captains — South Africa’s Faf du Plessis and India’s Virat Kohli — have been in the news in the recent past. Du Plessis was fined his match fee but escaped a ban for alleged ball-tampering while in Kohli’s case, the allegation stayed as such.
But Kumble was both dismissive and firm on what he thought of the subject.
“First of all, I don’t want to react to any report that is there in the media. As far as I am concerned, neither the umpires nor the Match Referee ever came to us talking about it. Even for someone like Faf du Plessis, South Africa has played exceptional cricket to beat Australia 2-0 and to be told about ball tampering, it is very silly.
“It’s making a mountain out of a molehill. We would certainly not like to give too much wind to the story. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing to worry about. People can allege and write whatever they want in the media. As far as we are concerned, none of our players were part of such activity.”
It may be recalled that in the case of Du Plessis, the International Cricket Council stated that the footage of him shining the ball with residue from a sweet in his saliva amounted to breach of the rules.
In that context, with English players also known to carry sweets to the playground, Chris Woakes was asked whether there would be some change.
Woakes, the medium-pacer likely to return to the England squad for the third Test in place of an injured Stuart Broad, sought clarification of a “grey area.”
He said, “We haven’t been told off for it, or banned or fined — so we’ll continue to do exactly what we’ve done in the past. Occasionally at drinks breaks, the guys will come and have sweets or mints — just to freshen up and keep the energy going. But nothing from the sweet is allowed to go on the ball, or is supposed to. So therefore we don’t do that.”
