The England team was in the news for the wrong reasons on Sunday when an England player was seen trapping the red Dukes ball with his spikes during Day Four of the second Test match between India and England at Lord's.
The incident, seen on television by millions all over the world, took place in the 35th over of the Indian second innings, bowled by Ollie Robinson. As expected, it was all over social media and raised accusations of ball-tampering from the fans, with current and ex-cricketers chipping in with their two cents on the incident.
Former India openers Virender Sehwag, Aakash Chopra, tweeted on the matter, questioning, in jest, if this would be counted as ball-tampering.
Vikram Rathour, India's batting coach said that the team management didn't think England was trying to tamper with the ball.
"Not really, we were sitting outside so we hardly saw those replays. I saw it later, it does not look anything deliberate. I think it was accidental, we did not think anything about it actually," said Rathour.
When a fan asked England bowler Stuart Broad on Twitter if the act was intentional, he replied, "Of course, it wasn't (deliberate)" and said Mark Wood was trying to 'nut meg', a football move, Rory Burns "by tapping the ball through his legs (a very common occurrence) & he missed and kicked the ball there by accident. Instead of screenshotting the pic, watch the video- quite plain & easy to see."
There was no report of the Indian team lodging a complaint with the match referee Chris Broad.
The England team were involved in a similar incident way back in 2010 in a Test match against South Africa. TV cameras had shown Stuart Broad stopping the ball, a straight drive, with the sole of his shoes. James Anderson was also seen picking at the scuffs on the ball. The footage was played multiple times on TV. When the players returned to the field after lunch, umpires Daryl Harper and Tony Hill had spoken with captain Andrew Strauss on the matter.
The South African team spoke with match referee Roshan Mahanama but did not lodge an official complaint.
Broad had said he was bemused and that he stopped the ball with his shoe because of laziness. However, the England management were said to be furious with the suggestions of ball-tampering. Neither the umpires nor the match referee had spoken about the incident with the England management, according to The Guardian.
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