Johannesburg - ICC chief executive Dave Richardson has refuted claims by Cricket SA he was involved in ball-tempering during his playing career.
Haroon Lorgat, Cricket SA chief executive, made the accusation saying Richards was formerly part of South Africa's “ball shining brigade” while defending current Proteas captain Faf du Plessis who this week was found guilty of ball tampering by the ICC for illegally changing the condition of the ball.
“I thought that comment was probably inappropriate, but I can speak for myself and I can confirm I never - probably because I was the wicketkeeper and had no real need to shine the ball in any way,” said Richardson. “I used lip-ice and sunscreen religiously for 30 years - and never put it on the ball.”
After Du Plessis was first charged with ball-tampering, the South Africans reacted strongly to the allegations dismissing them as a joke and a ploy to diminish their dominant play which had seen the Proteas win the Test series with a game to spare. Richardson defended the actions of the ICC and said his organisation were perfectly justified.
“We're not going to go around wildly accusing players of cheating and using the lip-ice, sunscreen or sweets,” he said. “And we've taken the approach that we will only really charge someone if it's obviously being done for that particular purpose.
“There are two examples in the past. “One was Rahul Dravid where he actually took the sweet and rubbed it on the ball, you probably couldn't get more obvious than that. And, in our opinion, this instance. So if anyone does something similar we will hopefully get to see it, treat it in exactly the same way we've treated Faf in this case.”
African News Agency (ANA)