Deliberate ball tampering by England? Stuart Broad disagrees

An incident before the 35th over of India’s second innings at Lord’s triggered debates over Twitter as England fieldsman Rory Burns was seen stepping on the ball with his shoe. Immediately questions followed whether it was a deliberate attempt by Burns and fast bowler Mark Wood to do ball tampering? Even former India batsman turned […]
 By Kashish Chadha Aug 15, 2021, 20:15 IST
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Deliberate ball tampering by England? Stuart Broad disagrees

An incident before the 35th over of India’s second innings at Lord’s triggered debates over Twitter as England fieldsman Rory Burns was seen stepping on the ball with his shoe. Immediately questions followed whether it was a deliberate attempt by Burns and fast bowler Mark Wood to do ball tampering?

Even former India batsman turned popular commentator, Aakash Chopra, wondered if Burns and Robinson had toed the line and tried to alter the condition of the ball via an illegal mean.

Chopra posted a query tweet in this context immediately after the broadcasters showed footage of Robinson initially tapping the ball towards Burns with his spikes on and then the close-in fielder also almost rubbing the back of his shoe on the cricket ball.

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England fast bowler Stuart Broad, who is not playing at Lord’s because of injury, however, offered a view completely in contrast to of the Indian fans and even argued with some of the them that it was not deliberate on Burns’ part.

Deliberate ball tampering by England? Stuart Broad disagrees

Stuart Broad argues against Indian fans after accusations that England tampered with the ball.

Stuart Broad defends his teammates after Indian fans accuse that England tampered with the ball at Lord’s

With ball-tampering being a contentious topic since the 2018 Cape Town incident involving the tainted trio of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, Twitterati was quick to raise a question mark on England fielders’ intentions, even though some of the fans argued in the contrary.

While there was no immediate activity from the on-field umpires in this regard, it remains to be seen how the officials respond to Burns’ act following close verification after the Test match. As per the ICC laws, a cricketer is liable to face a ban of minimum one Test match if found making a deliberate attempt to do ball-tampering.

Even Smith, Warner and Bancroft were suspended for one Test match only by the ICC, before Cricket Australia (CA) took its own disciplinary action against the three and banned them for elongated periods.

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