Reverse swing - cheating or an art?

SO the Australian bubble has finally burst. England has regained the mythical Ashes for the first time in 19 years. The change of guard is good for the game so long dominated by the Aussies.

But amidst the celebrations at Trafalgar Square comes the most interesting piece of news from Karachi where former Pakistan captain and fast bowler Wasim Akram has said that England should tender an apology to him and his team mates of 1992 for accusing them of cheating when they used reverse swing to win the five-Test series 2-1 (2 drawn).

It was the same reverse swing with which England won the Ashes by the same margin of 2-1 (2 drawn), last week.

Akram was quoted by a news agency saying: "When we did the reverse swing against England in 1992, they were great moaners and groaners of the world, they termed it as cheating. And now when they achieved an Ashes win through reverse swing, it is an art. England owes us an apology in a big way."

Akram and his long time fast bowling colleague Waqar Younis took 43 wickets between them in the series and were accused of cheating and ball tampering by the English tabloid newspapers.

Javed Miandad who was captaining Pakistan in that series wrote in his autobiography '?utting Edge': The England manager Mickey Stewart made a statement saying that he knew very well what the Pakistani bowlers were up to but he wasn't going to say what it was. It was the classical English ploy when you say something without really saying it."

'Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ran a feature titled: "Pakistani bowling - fair or foul?" because England could not account for the dramatic collapses their side went through in the series from positions of relative prosperity.

What they could not fathom out and termed as 'cheating' by the Pakistani bowlers was how a ball which was over 50 overs old would start to swing when it was older, softer and with a less prominent seam.

Wisden however concluded by saying: "Bouncers were hardly used in 1992 by two bowlers who are to be congratulated for producing some of the most spectacular bowling that spectators in England have ever seen."

It would be interesting to know what Wisden will say when it records England's Ashes triumph in its 2006 edition. Will Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff, the two bowlers who used reverse swing to bamboozle the Aussies be held in high esteem and hailed as heroes or castigated as cheats.

The current euphoria running across Britain does not permit the term 'cheats' to be used against their heroes, even though it can be freely used against bowlers of any other nation.

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

ICC awards time again

It is one again time for the International Cricket Council (ICC) awards. Remember the acrimony that was created last year when the ICC chose to ignore the bowling efforts of Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and voted leg-spinner Shane Warne ahead of him when the Australian had played only for half the year and captured half the amount of wickets as Muralitharan.

The Sri Lankan spinner is out of contention from this year's awards list because he was inactive during the period recuperating from a shoulder operation.

But two others figure in the list of nominees released by the ICC, wicket-keeper/batsman Kumar Sangakkara and fast bowler Chaminda Vaas. Sangakkara appears in the list for both versions of the game for Test Player of the Year and One-day International Player of the Year while Vaas has been nominated only for the shorter version.

In the period that covers the awards August 1, 2004 to July 31, 2005, Sangakkara has emerged as the most forceful batsman in the Sri Lankan side. Eight Tests produced 842 runs at an average of 60 including three centuries and three fifties and 506 runs (avg. 46) in 14 one-dayers.

Sri Lanka won four of the Tests played in that period and lost two and drew two. In the one-day version they won nine out of 14 matches and lost five, and also won the PakTel Cup and completed a clean 5-0 sweep of the series against South Africa.

Vaas captured 16 one-day wickets at a cost of 25.43 runs apiece. How effective these figures will go towards making them winners of the various categories only time will tell.