England V Pakistan abandoned over cheating row.

Blackleaf

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The fourth and final Test match between England and Pakistan has been abandoned after Pakistan were accused of ball tampering. England were given 5 penalty runs because of the cheating. After play resumed after tea, Pakistan refused to come back onto the field and stayed in their dressing room in protest. The England batsmen were on the field waiting. After 45 minutes, the Pakistanis came back onto the field, amid boos and jeers from the crowd. But they then had to go back off again as the umpires also refused to come back out. It is the first time any international side have been penalised in such a way for the offence following a change to the laws of the game in recent years.

In cricket, bowlers can tamper with the ball in a variety of ways so that it suits the bowlers and their team and causes grief for batsmen. But it's illegal.

Pakistan were winning this Test Match (but had already lost the Series as they were 2-0 down in the Series and this was the final Test) but, according to the laws of the game, England could now be declared the winners due to Pakistan's protestations.
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The Score

Fourth and final test

1st Innings
England 173
Pakistan 504

2nd innings
England 298-4

England are 33 runs behind but could be declared winners, and will win the Series 3-0.
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Test match in chaos over cheating row

20th August 2006



Umpires inspect the ball after Pakistan were accused of tampering with it.


Pakistan are at the centre of an unprecedented ball-tampering controversy this afternoon. Their players had refused to continue the match at the Oval after the umpires alleged they had tampered with the ball.

Another half an hour later, Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq led his side out onto the field, but neither the umpires nor the England batsmen followed and two minutes later the tourists returned to their dressing room.

During the lunchtime session on the fourth day, umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove decided that Pakistan's bowlers had altered the state of the match ball and awarded England five penalty runs.

It is the first time any international side have been penalised in such a way for the offence following a change to the laws of the game in recent years.

Under law 42.3 of the International Cricket Council's playing conditions, the umpires should award five runs to the batting side and change the ball when they think it has been interfered with.

The batsmen at the wicket should then choose a replacement of similar wear from a selection of half a dozen.

England were 230 for three after 56 overs when the officials stopped play to confer in the middle and batsmen Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood were then asked to choose a substitute from a box brought out by fourth umpire Trevor Jesty.

Frequent inspections of the ball are undertaken by the umpires but there were no obvious signs of any Pakistan fielder altering the ball's condition.

The incident may have been sparked by Pakistan starting to achieve reverse swing through seamer Umar Gul, who dismissed Alastair Cook for 83 with an inswinging yorker, as England reached 298 for four when bad light stopped play shortly before tea, still 33 runs adrift.

As soon as the incident took place, Pakistan's English coach Bob Woolmer went to see match referee Mike Procter, who was due to discuss the matter further with the umpires at tea.

England had resumed 253 runs adrift on 78 for one and been fortunate not to lose a wicket during the early stages with Cook, who had not added to his overnight 33, being caught at silly point off pad and bat facing leg-spinner Danish Kaneria in the first over of the day.

Umpire Doctrove rejected that appeal and just four overs later Cook was given his second reprieve when he was bowled off a no-ball from Kaneria.

Perhaps influenced by his earlier decision, Doctrove did uphold an appeal for leg before when a fizzing leg break from Kaneria hit stand-in captain Andrew Strauss outside off-stump having hit a determined 54.

Three overs later Cook was given his third and final reprieve when he pulled Mohammad Asif straight to Faisal Iqbal at square leg only for him to miss the regulation chance.

It allowed Cook to forge a 103-run stand with Kevin Pietersen which put England back on course to salvage a draw until the ball began reverse-swinging in mid-afternoon and ended his innings of 83.

Pietersen, dropped on 15 by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal off Kaneria, went on to punish Pakistan for their miss and shrugged off the controversy over the ball tampering to move within four runs of his sixth Test century.

But, looking for the big shot to bring up three figures, Pietersen instead edged Shahid Nazir behind and it needed a determined stand between Collingwood and Ian Bell to ensure England did not suffer any further losses before the light closed in.

dailymail.co.uk
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How bowlers can tamper with a cricket ball to cause trouble to batsmen -



A new, highly polished ball is used at the start of each innings in a match. Bowlers are also allowed to polish the ball during the game with saliva or sweat and rubbing it onto their trousers which causes a red stain, but any other substance is illegal. Balls can be tampered with by being scratched or scruffed with the fingernails or the seams picked or lifted. This is probably what Pakistan did against England.



A cricket ball may not be replaced except under specific conditions described in the Laws of Cricket:

*If the ball becomes damaged or lost.
*If the condition of the ball is illegally modified by a player.
*If, after a specified number of overs ( 80 in Test cricket), the captain of the bowling side requests a new ball.


The ball is not replaced if it is hit into the crowd - the crowd must return it (unlike in baseball). If the ball is damaged, lost, or illegally modified, it will be replaced by a used ball in similar condition to the replaced ball. A new ball can only be used after the specified minimum number of overs have been bowled with the old one.

Because a single ball is used for an extended period of play, its surface wears down and becomes rough. The bowlers will polish it whenever they can - usually by rubbing it on their trousers, producing the characteristic red stain that can often be seen there. However, they will usually only polish one side of the ball, in order to create 'swing' as it travels through the air. They may apply natural substances (i.e. saliva or sweat) to the ball as they polish it, but any other material is illegal.

The seam of a cricket ball can also be used to produce different trajectories through the air, with the technique known as swing bowling, or to produce sideways movement as it bounces off the pitch, with the technique known as seam bowling.

Since the condition of the cricket ball is crucial to the amount of movement through the air a bowler can produce, the laws governing what players may and may not do to the ball are specific and rigorously enforced. The umpires will inspect the ball frequently during a match. It is illegal for a player to:

*rub any substance apart from saliva or sweat onto the ball
*rub the ball on the ground
*scuff the ball with any rough object, including the fingernails
*pick at or lift the seam of the ball.

Despite these rules, it can be tempting for players to gain an advantage by breaking them. There have been a handful of incidents of so-called ball tampering at the highest levels of cricket, involving players such as Pakistani fast bowler Waqar Younis and former England captain Mike Atherton.

A new cricket ball is harder than a worn one, and is preferred by fast bowlers because of the speed and bounce of the ball as it bounces off the pitch. Older balls tend to spin more as the roughness grips the pitch more when the ball bounces, so spin bowlers prefer to use a worn ball. A captain may delay the request for a new ball if he prefers to have his spin bowlers operating, but usually asks for the new ball soon after it becomes available.

Cricket balls are notoriously hard, and potentially lethal. Frederick, Prince of Wales, is said to have died of complications after being hit by one, and Glamorgan player, Roger Davis, was almost killed by one. Raman Lamba was killed when hit on the head while fielding at forward short leg in a club match in Bangladesh. Hence today's batsmen and close fielders often wear protective headgear.



wikipedia.org



The art of legally polishing a cricket ball only on one side of it or in certain areas so that it produces a certain swing or trajectory to cause trouble to a batsman is an art that could take years to learn.
 

Blackleaf

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Pakistan were on their way to winning this Fourth and final Test in the Series, although it would only have been a consolation win as the England (and Wales) team had already had the Series in the bag after being 2-0 up with the First Test drawn. But now England have been declared the winner of this Test after the game was abandoned when Pakistan and the two umpires refused to come back onto the field after the tea break over ball tampering allegations. England win the Series 3-0. It was the first time in 130 years of Test cricket that a match had been called off because of an impasse between players and officials.

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Cricket chaos: after two walkouts and a ball-tampering row, England win Test

Lawrence Booth at The Oval
Monday August 21, 2006
The Guardian




Umpires and players examine the match ball at The Oval. Photograph: Chris Young/PA



The fourth Test between England and Pakistan was abandoned amid acrimonious scenes last night after a breakdown in relations between the two umpires and the Pakistani team, who had been penalised five runs for allegedly tampering with the ball.

A total of 12,000 tickets had been sold in advance for the scheduled last day today. But the refusal of the umpires - Darrell Hair of Australia and the Dominican Billy Doctrove - to back down from their decision to award the game to England, after the protesting Pakistanis failed to retake the field immediately after tea, meant that for the first time in 130 years of Test cricket a match had been called off because of an impasse between players and officials.

Following a meeting late into the evening between the England and Pakistan boards, as well as the two captains and the International Cricket Council match referee, a statement read out by David Collier, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, confirmed that everyone except the umpires had been willing to resume the game.

"The Pakistan team was aggrieved by the award of five penalty runs to England," said the statement. "The award of those penalty runs for alleged interference with the ball is under review by the ICC match referee Mike Procter, whose report will be considered in due course."

The controversy began at 2.30pm when Hair and Doctrove inspected the ball at the end of the 56th over of England's second innings and decided it had been interfered with by the Pakistanis. Changing the shape or texture of a ball alters its behaviour in the air and is an advantage to the bowling side. The rules state that a fielding team can polish the ball or apply saliva to it, but that no other agent must be used in its preparation.

A heated debate ensued with Pakistan's captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, before Hair signalled that five penalty runs were to be added to the England total because, in the view of the umpires, Pakistan had contravened law 43, which governs the condition of the ball.

Tea was taken early and a furious Pakistani team refused to take the field at 4.40pm, the scheduled resumption time. Instead they decided to register a brief protest at the umpires' decision by staying in their dressing room, but just as the Pakistanis were emerging, the umpires removed the bails and left the field with the two England batsmen, Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell.

The Pakistani team later signalled their intention to carry on with the game, but this time, as a crowd of 23,000 registered their impatience, it was the umpires who chose not to reappear because they felt Pakistan had forfeited their right to carry on.

Shahryar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, expressed his disappointment at the way the situation had been handled. "The boys are extremely upset at the slur of ball-tampering," he said. "As a result we wanted to register our protest with the match referee. Once that was done we were ready to go out again, but the umpires were unwilling to go out. Inzamam-ul-Haq and his team feel deeply insulted by the accusation. They are convinced they have done nothing wrong. They are convinced the ball was in the kind of state you would expect it to be in after 56 overs. It had been hit around and landed on concrete, so it was scuffed a bit. The captain was not allowed to see the ball before it was changed."

At 6.15pm the game was called off for the evening. Sky television, which had more than two dozen cameras following play, failed to uncover any evidence of ball-tampering. Spectators will get a 40% refund on yesterday's tickets.

The Pakistanis have been dogged by ball-tampering controversy since being accused by some England players of lifting the seam during a tour in 1992. Yesterday's furore was not helped by the fact that relations between Hair and the team had reached breaking-point after a series of incidents over the past few months.

guardian.co.uk
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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Newfoundland!
4 possible solutions:

1) ban cricket because it's a silly game anyway

2) redesign the balls so tampering is less easy... i understand that your average cricket player's attitude to change is that of a proton for another proton, but screw them

3) replace the balls regularly so any tampering is worthless to the potential tamperer

4) make all the bowlers cut their fingernails to the quick, or even better, cut their fingers off.
 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
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WORLD CRICKET ROCKED BY ENGLAND/PAKISTAN CHEATING SCANDAL
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Inzy fury



By DAVE KIDD


PAKISTAN are ready to pull out of the one-day series with England if captain Inzamam-ul-Haq is banned for ball tampering.

The cricket cheat storm turned into an international crisis yesterday as the game descended further into chaos.

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer warned: “I think the one-day games may well be in jeopardy if he is found guilty and banned for eight games. The players are right behind their captain.”

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan accused umpire Darrell Hair of inflaming Christian and Muslim tensions as the war of words exploded.

And Hair’s presence at next year’s World Cup could cause further protests from Asian nations.

The ECB will lose more than £5million in gate receipts and TV revenue if the one-day games are axed, with 110,000 tickets sold.

Khan said: “I read gate receipts and TV revenue if the one-day games are axed, with 110,000 tickets sold.

Khan said: “I read something which said ‘In these days of tension, outside the cricket ground, what a wonderful sight it is to see a game between a Muslim nation and England — with a majority of Christians — absolutely normal with both sides being cheered and appreciated’.

“This is the spirit of cricket. Cricket offers a bridge of peace — why destroy this bridge over a technicality?”

Effigies and pictures of Hair were burned in Pakistan streets yesterday.

Asked if he thought Hair was a racist, Khan said: “I can’t comment on that but ask the Indians and Sri Lankans about the same man.

“We do not think Mr Hair is a bad umpire, we think he is a good umpire. But we do not like the attitude he shows to our team.

“We are deeply affected that an umpire we had lost confidence in before now should train his guns on our team by making allegations of ball tampering.
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It is a slur on the team and a slur on our nation.

“The protest was right but we apologise to the spectators because we wanted to resume the match.”

Sri Lanka and India could join forces with Pakistan in trying to get the Aussie removed from the umpires’ panel for the World Cup — sparking a new crisis.

Pakistan will now appeal to the ICC in a bid to bar Hair from officiating in their future matches.

Khan said: “We have told the ICC we do not want Mr Hair to umpire in any further games involving Pakistan. We hope they’ll be sensitive.”

Khan also called for the ball to be shown in public.

Inzy, who faces an ICC disciplinary hearing on Friday, added: “It’s not once with Hair, it’s lots of times.

“We had already sent a letter before this to the ICC, asking that he is not umpire in Pakistan games.

“But still he is doing it in two Tests here. The controversy is always there.

“If someone says you are a cheat and Pakistan is doing wrong things, my first priority is to my country.

“I said to Hair ‘Why did you change the ball?’, He said ‘The ball has been tampered with’. I said ‘Show me’ but he didn’t show me the ball.

“There were 26 cameras there and nobody has picked anything.”

Woolmer was so upset over the storm he nearly quit.

He said: “If I had done, it might have been wrongly interpreted as an admission of guilt.

“But I was not happy about being involved in what took place.

“I love cricket, its ethics and its traditions. This has rocked me.

“Every one of my players swore an oath they had not tampered with the ball.”

England and Pakistan are due to meet in a Twenty20 clash on Monday and a five-match one-day series, which starts tomorrow week.
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Cricket's stigma

Troy Cooley's swing bowling masterclass

By Pranav Soneji

The score of the Fourth Test as the match was abandoned.

1st innings
England 173
Pakistan 504

2nd innings
England 298-4

England were 33 runs behind and on their way to losing but they win the game as Pakistan have forfeited it as they caused the game to be abandoned. England win the series 3-0.



Darrell Hair (middle) is the man at the centre of the controversy

Ball tampering is one of the most emotive and controversial issues in Test cricket, especially when accusations involve Pakistan.

When umpire Darrell Hair awarded England five penalty runs for violating law 42.3 for deliberately altering the condition of the ball during the fourth Test at The Oval, the Australian official provoked a huge Pakistani backlash.

Ball tampering is tantamount to cheating, everything that contravenes the spirit of this most gentlemanly of sports.

Unfortunately these accusations are nothing new to Pakistani cricket.

The slur has taunted the nation since all-rounder Imran Khan first extracted exaggerated late movement with the older ball during the 1970s.

BBC Sport examines the stigma of ball tampering.

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HOW DOES BALL TAMPERING FAVOUR BOWLERS?
Bowlers shine one side of a new cricket ball while the opposite is left to deteriorate through natural wear and tear.

This process helps bowlers swing the ball in the air.

In simple terms, the aerodynamics of bowling mean the shiny side travels faster through the air, while the rough side acts as a brake, pushing the ball in the direction of the rough side.

But as the ball loses its early shine, it begins to swing less and it is not until it gets older and rougher that it begins to deviate again, a process known as reverse swing.



"As the ball becomes rougher, it will take on a different characteristic as it deteriorates," said former England fast bowling coach Troy Cooley, who helped England's bowlers use the phenomenon to great success during the 2005 Ashes series.

"So if you present the ball as an outswinger, the ball has deteriorated so much on the rough side that it takes on the characteristics of the shiny side.

"Which means a natural outswinger will become an inswinger and conversely, an inswinger an outswinger."

LAW 42.3c (FAIR AND UNFAIR PLAY):
It is unfair for anyone to rub the ball on the ground for any reason, interfere with any of the seams or the surface of the ball, use any implement, or take any other action whatsoever which is likely to alter the condition of the ball

The laws of the game clearly state fielders can polish, clean or dry the ball, but nothing more.

The batsmen, pitch and outfield all contribute to the natural wear and tear of the ball, which usually starts to reverse swing around the 40- to 50-over mark during a Test match.

However, the earlier the ball starts to reverse swing, the more problems it poses for the batsmen.

Bowlers can facilitate the deterioration by manipulating the condition of the ball illegally.

The seam, which acts as the ball's rudder when it swings, can be picked with fingernails.

The nails can also help to further scuff the rough side of the ball.

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WHY IS IT SO EMOTIVE?
There could be no greater slur on sporting integrity than cheating. And ball tampering is exactly that.

The fact that most allegations have involved Pakistan will not be lost on the International Cricket Council, the sport's governing body.

Reverse swing has its origins in Pakistan.



Wasim and Waqar were at the centre of the 1992 controversy at Lord's

The hard, abrasive sub-continental wickets helped fast bowlers Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis pick up hundreds of Test and one-day wickets through late deviation and movement with the older ball.

But the trio's accomplishments have always been shrouded by an underlying accusation that their wickets were collected by illegally altering the ball, despite their claims to the contrary.

At the height of Wasim and Waqar's powers, English umpires Ken Palmer and John Hampshire ordered the ball to be changed during the interval of a one-day international between England and Pakistan at Lord's in 1992.

Like the circumstances at The Oval, images of the ball in question and the umpires' report were never released to the media, and nothing more was ever proved.

Imran made matters worse when he admitted in 1994 he had "occasionally scratched the side of the ball and lifted the seam".

He also said he had used a bottle top to scuff the ball to help the ball swing more during a county game for Sussex against Hampshire in 1981.

India's Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have both been found guilty of ball tampering

And the controversy has not ended there.

Waqar, who is Pakistan's current bowling coach, was handed a one-match suspended ban and fined 50% of his match fee for tampering with the ball in a one-day international against South Africa in 2000.

And fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was found guilty of the same offence during a Test match against Zimbabwe in November 2002, serving a two-match ban as punishment.

However ball tampering is not an exclusive Pakistani malaise - far from it.

Former England captain Mike Atherton hit the headlines with the "dirt in the pocket" scandal in 1994, when he was caught rubbing dirt on the ball against South Africa at Lord's.

And Indian batting giants Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have both been found guilty of deliberately altering the condition of the ball in the last five years.

The scenes at The Oval will be indelibly etched as one of cricket's darkest days, but it is unlikely it will be the last time the controversy of ball tampering will rear its ugly head.

news.bbc.co.uk