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'Scrap the ball-tampering law' - Woolmer

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has called for the abolition of Law 42.3, which governs the condition of the ball and which was the centre of the controversy surrounding the forfeiture of the Oval Test

Cricinfo staff
23-Aug-2006


Bob Woolmer: 'They [bowlers] could rub the ball on the ground, pick the seam, scratch it with their nails - anything that allows the ball to move off the seam to make it less of a batsman's game' © Getty Images
Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, has called for the abolition of Law 42.3, which governs the condition of the ball and which was the centre of the controversy surrounding the forfeiture of the Oval Test.
"The whole irony and tragedy of this particular story is law 42.3," he told The Guardian newspaper. "But law 42.3 is an ass. It was brought in because of ball-tampering with razor blades and bottle tops and everything else in the past, but that's been shoved out of the game now. I'd scrub out the law completely."
Woolmer backed his players and insisted that they had done nothing illegal at The Oval, adding that he'd held these views earlier as well. "I'd allow bowlers to use anything that naturally appears on the cricket field," Woolmer continued. "They could rub the ball on the ground, pick the seam, scratch it with their nails - anything that allows the ball to move off the seam to make it less of a batsman's game.
"It should be looked at seriously by the MCC's laws committee. Every single bowler I know from the time I played in 1968 to 1984 was guilty, at least under the current law, of some sort of ball-changing. If you haven't played the game, like a lot of the umpires haven't, they don't know these things. The more laws you make to try to stop it being done, the more the players go the other way. It's like prohibition: the more you ban alcohol, the more it goes underground. They really need to open it up in my opinion."
Woolmer added that he didn't have a problem with Duncan Fletcher visiting Mike Procter on the fourth morning of the Oval Test, and pointed out that the two men knew each other well from playing together for Rhodesia. "He might well have gone there and said, 'hello, good morning, how's your wife?' He may well also have gone in and said, 'watch out, they're tampering with the ball.' I don't think I can stop him from doing that. I think possibly I would have done the same thing. I should also point out that I spend a lot of time watching the England players through binoculars too."
He also had his theory on why the ball got scuffed up, a fact that led to the umpires calling for a change. "When he [Danish Kaneria] bowls a leg-break or a flipper, the ball doesn't land on the seam," he said pointing out that Kaneria was operating as the moment approached. "If it comes out of his hand at a different angle, the ball automatically gets scuffed up because it lands on the side."
What if Inzamam is found guilty? "I cannot see how, if the captain is thrown out for doing nothing essentially, that the players won't stand behind him," said Woolmer. "Whatever I say, and however much I try to get them to play, they are united behind the captain. What I fear is that because they love him so much, if they feel he is unfairly treated, then I would not know what the reaction would be. There is no guarantee, bearing in mind the feelings that are currently emanating from the camp, that the one-day series will go on."