Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis has called on the ICC to draw the line on ball-tampering.
Du Plessis was speaking to the media before the squad’s flight to Sri Lanka on Sunday, 1 July.
‘They have to… it’s happening too often. They definitely need to do that as quickly as possible. I know they met a while ago, but it doesn’t look like anything has changed. It’s still the same rules and stuff, so they need to change that because the penalties need to be harsher for ball-tampering,’ the Proteas captain said at Cape Town International Airport.
Du Plessis expressed his frustration with the ICC and the rules they currently have in place.
‘I’ve probably said it too much but there are too many grey areas when it comes to the ICC and the rules. One is you want clarity and, two, you want consistency. It’s definitely not something that has been part of that body of laws for a while now because there are a lot of captains who have been speaking about it for a lot of years. Hopefully, when they do bring all these new things, there will be a lot of clarity and, most importantly, consistency for all teams.’
The Proteas face Sri Lanka in two Test matches, five ODIs and one T20 on their tour of Sri Lanka. Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka’s captain, was charged by the ICC with ball-tampering during the recent second Test against the West Indies. Chandimal’s charge was identical to the ball-tampering charge that the ICC laid against Du Plessis in 2016. Both players denied the charges that they had knowingly altered the condition of the ball by sucking sugary sweets in an effort to make their saliva affect the condition of the ball.
