If ball-tampering is as common as many people who have played cricket to a high level insist, while public exposure of such acts remain relatively rare, the question is why the Australians were caught red-handed in Cape Town and not before, if as is suspected this was not the first time they had transgressed. History suggests that initial suspicions of tampering can be the catalyst for the greater scrutiny which ultimately results in the culprits’ downfall, but often this scrutiny is exercised not by officialdom but TV broadcasters who are less obliged to be even-handed, with strikingly uneven results. Rumours of ball-tampering were rife from an early stage of the series and both sides had suspicions about what their opponents were up to. South Africa…

Source: The Times March 31, 2018 23:15 UTC