IPL players involved in ball-tampering: Akram

KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain and Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowling coach Wasim Akram has accused IPL players of ball-tampering.

According to Akram, once the lights are switched on in Mumbai, Rajasthan and Ahmedabad, bowlers rub red soil on the ball in order to make it difficult to pick out by the batsmen. “I will not name anyone but I have seen quite a few cricketers who have been rubbing mud on the ball and that is also tampering,” Akram told espnstar.com.

“Around the 18th or the 19th over, in places like Rajasthan, Mumbai and Ahmedabad where there is red soil, it becomes difficult to pick the ball under lights and by putting mud on the ball, these players are trying to contain the batsmen and get wickets. “If umpires are not watching then I don’t know who is,” Akram, however, ruled out the reverse-swing effect and said that putting the mud on the ball will not help the bowlers achieve that.

“The spinners do it to get some grip, that’s different. But here someone is just going berserk rubbing the mud on the ball.”