Ian Chappell Suggests That Ball-Tampering Could Be Legalized To An Extent To Stop 'All Other Shenanigans'

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell has suggested a way by which the ICC could permanently eliminate ball-tampering. Ball-tampering has been a burning issue in the recent past, especially since the trio of Australian players were caught doing it three years ago in South Africa. Nevertheless, Ian Chappell believes that ball-tampering could be legalized on some level with proper administration.

Cameron Bancroft’s interview with the Guardian reopened the topic as Cricket Australia resumed their investigation on the same. But the Australian bowlers that were part of the game back in 2018 have denied the charges strongly yet again. Cameron Bancroft’s interview with the Guardian, where he implied that the knowledge of the incident could be extended to more than three members of the team, reignited all the debates.

Ian Chappell suggested that they could go to the captains of every country and get a list of things that should help the ball swing. The 77-year old continued saying that amongst those, they will come up with the most sensible object, which they could use to swing the ball and everything else would be illegal. The South Australian thinks that it’s the only way they could eradicate the issue.

“I think about 20 years ago, I said what they should do is go to the captains of every country and you get a list of things that they think will help the ball swing. Then you send us all these lists, we’ll go through them and we’ll come up with one thing and it will be a sensible thing, not using a bottle cap to scrape the ball. It’ll be viable but we’ll give you one thing that’ll help you swing the ball and everything else will be illegal. Maybe I am naive but think if you did that, you might stop all the other shenanigans because you give them something in return,” Chappell told ESPN Cricinfo.

Let’s look at the way the laws are written: Ian Chappell

Ian Chappell also commented that with the laws mostly in favour of the batsmen, the likes of underarm, sidearm bowling, body line, and ball-tampering have followed due to that. Hence, the bowlers have always found it challenging to get the better of the batsmen.

“Let’s look at the way the laws are written. They are pretty much always written in favor of the batsman and if you go right back to underarm bowling to sidearm bowling… to body line and ball-tampering – they all come about because the balance is too much in favor of the batsmen and the bowlers eventually say ‘we have had enough, we are mad as hell and we are going to do something about it,” he added.

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