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Umpires find no evidence of ball tampering:
Siddle cleared, but suspicions remain
Elmo Rodrigopulle - Reporting from Australia
The Australians and the cricketers woke up on Tuesday morning in a
state of disbelief when news of alleged ball tampering trickled down
from the Sri Lankan media, including the ‘DAILY NEWS’. The TV showed
footage of Australian pace man who was later named man-of-the-match
allegedly fiddling with the ball in suspicious manner. It looked as
though he was trying to up the seam with his fingers so as to gain undue
advantage.
But all’s well that ends well and at the end of the Test won by
Australia by 137 runs news came in that International Cricket Council
claiming that the umpires found no evidence of ball tampering – but
match referee Chris Broad was given an additional 24 hours to
investigate and, if necessary to press charges.
Jayawardene interested
When questioned at the post-match press briefing Sri Lanka skipper
Mahela Jayawardene said: ’I was clearly interested to see what action
International Cricket Council match referee Chris Broad would take.
‘That’s something we will have to wait and see. The easiest thing for
match officials to have done was at least have a chat to the Aussie
management or captain and see what happened and move on. ’If they
haven’t done that we are a bit sad about it. That is the minimum
requirement when everyone saw on television when they zoomed in.
‘It’s not that we just picked up something, it was shown on
television and that’s when we saw it as well’, said Jayawardene. The Sri
Lankan management is convinced that something naughty was done.
Surprised at allegations
At the post match briefing skipper Michael Clarke and Peter Siddle
were surprised at the allegations.’ That is a ridiculous statement.
There’s a picture going around on Twitter, but on Twitter you can say
what you want and there’s no consequences’ said the fast bowler.
Skipper Clarke seemed annoyed and denied the allegation that the
Australians resorted to ball-tampering to beat Sri Lanka.’ I’ve only
just heard it when I came back into the change room that it had been
spoken about. I heard from the ICC or Chris Broad that there was nothing
to it.
‘At the end of the day, the ICC have made it very clear there was
nothing there. I 100 per cent believe we always play in the spirit of
the game. I don’t think any of the Australian players would ever
jeopardize that to do anything to run our reputation.
Play the right way
‘We play hard on the field and we understand that there is a line you
can’t cross and we play the right way’ he said. Sri Lanka Manager
Charith Senenayake when contacted said that it was not something that we
saw.
‘The whole world saw it on television. They blocked out the player’s
face and continued to show the incident. The
ICC has said there is nothing to it. It is for the world to decide.
We will move on from here’, said the manager.
The Sri Lankan team will leave for Melbourne later in the evening
today. After a couple of off days they will begin training in earnest to
try and beat the Australians in the Boxing Day Test and pocket the first
ever Test win in Australia. Hobart, Wednesday. |
