Virender Sehwag Accused of Ball Tampering Using Mints

The jelly beans issue was gently treaded during the second Test of the India England series at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. However, the ball tampering issue has resurfaced with some sections of the British press accusing Virender Sehwag of manipulating the ball with mints during the third Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Virender Sehwag

It would seem, on the face of it, that even if the ploy were employed, it failed miserably because Alastair Cook carried on from his overnight score of 182 to post his personal best innings of 294 as England went past 700 in their first innings to hand India a massive 486 run deficit. However, while the day’s honours belonged strongly to Cook for his patience, resilience and contribution as also, to Eoin Morgan bringing up his second Test century on a day when England had edged decisively closing to taking the no.1 Test rank away from India.

However, ball tampering found its way in the midst of another sordid day for India but only much later on one of the British newspapers that claimed that Virender Sehwag, India’s opener who returned for the third Test after missing the first two, was seen chewing mints which he is later said to have deposited onto the ground only to use them later as he polished the ball.

The pictures though seemed contrived rather than sequential and there was still nothing in the images to suggest that there was a clear evidence of Virender Sehwag indulging in any form of ball tampering.

But the story certainly captured a few headlines only because of the gravity of such an offence and also, because India have already had to deal with false insinuations from the former England captain, Michael Vaughan, about the purported use of Vaseline on the bat to fool Hot Spot, which both Hot Spot and V.V.S. Laxman vehemently denied as did Vaseline. Jelly beans were a troublesome nuisance on India’s last tour and it seems that hatchet was buried until these pictures are being used to represent malpractice on the part of the Indian opener.

However, Sehwag was not found in violation of the rules because neither the umpires not the ICC match referee chose to take notice of it or bring it to highlight any malpractice of the nature. Perhaps it was a case of the newspaper letting imagination get the better of them because it seems hardly a cause for concern as England only piled on the misery for the Indian cricket team as the match progressed.

Ball tampering has been a tricky subject in cricket with a few such as former South African fast bowler and now bowling consultant, Allan Donald, in favour of legalizing ball tampering while a few others such as Javagal Srinath vehemently against allowing bowlers to manipulate the ball via artificial substances although a few players from the past have admitted to doing it such as the former Pakistan captain, Imran Khan, with bottle crown caps while others such as the infamous John Lever who continues to deny that Vaseline was deliberately applied to tamper with the ball.

Given that there is little evidence to substantiate the newspaper’s claim, one can expect this story to die an eventual death.