these evil Pakistani's all they do is cheat to win.I am not arguing Goughy's point he may well be correct but what gets my goat is how the issue only crops up when a Pakistani seamer displays it.
Thats because when reverse swing first made a HUGE impact in cricket starting with Sarfaraz and then Waqar and Wasim the scuffing of the ball in any which way including with soda bottle crowns was freely used (and openly admitted later including by Imran).
The rest of the world was first bamboozled by those bowlers and those deliveries, then wondered what was happening, then decided there HAD to be some 'hanky-panky'. then found what was being done to the ball (including in the county game where the Pakistanis played), then started screaming "foul" and "cheat". Since then things have changed. Others have been able to do it as well with more subtle methods. The ball may not swing as viciously as it did with those Pakistanis and not as early but it is enough to do damage. Now only those scream who are still not able to make it swing.
I do not agree that Pakistani's are the only one's blamed today - Indians have been too.
ICC needs to make the rules a bit clearer and maybe allow the rubbing of the cricket ball on the ground and things like that (without allowing implements like pen-knives or crowns) being used. Anything a player can do with hie hands and clothes should be allowed. Its cheating only if you call it so. Allow this much and the game will even out a bit, the batsmen will have to learn to play the swinging ball (reverse or normal) and the game will be enriched by that learning.
Bowlers have been rubbing the ball on their clothes to keep it shining for so long and there was no cry of "cheating". Before that the balls were made differently and the shine did not stay long enough and when the production methods changed and the shine remained for longer no one cried "foul". The balls were made differently by different companies and they behave differently. Its accepted. When India did not have any pacers or medium pacers, they would open the bowling with a spinner and he would openly rub the ball on the ground to get a grip and no one cribbed. All of us used our nails to clear the dirt and sticky mud (in wt conditions) that collected on the sides of the seam and it also helped to maintain the integrity of the seam which is good for the bowler and no one cried "cheater".
This raving and ranting started because what the Pakistani's started doing was considered underhand (and hush hush and denials made it worse). Let the laws become clearer and allow the bowlers some leeway to 'manage' the ball conditions to some extent with clear do's and dont's and it will settle down.
The problem with ICC is that it will either do nothing or just legislate mindlessly for one extreme or the other. Rational thought irrespective of who will benefit in the very short term and purely focussed on what it will do in the longer term would always be a good perspective to use but thats not ICC's way of working or of the idiots who man its various technical/cricket committees.
