Ball Tampering in Cricket: History, Controversies, and the Laws

What Is and Isn't Allowed

Law 41.3 of the Laws of Cricket governs fair and unfair action related to the ball. Legal ball maintenance: players may apply saliva or sweat to the ball and rub it with their clothing or hands to maintain or increase the shine on one side. Players may dry the ball with a dry cloth if it becomes wet. Players may remove mud from the ball if approved by the umpire. Illegal interference: anything beyond the above is prohibited — specifically, scratching or lifting the seam (using fingernails or a foreign object to raise the seam), applying any artificial substance (Vaseline, lip balm, mints, sunscreen, dirt), rubbing the ball on the pitch or ground (except as approved for mud removal), or deliberately bouncing the ball hard on a rough surface to accelerate deterioration.

The goal of illegal tampering is to accelerate the asymmetric deterioration that creates reverse swing — making one side rough faster than natural play would produce. By scratching the non-shiny side or applying dirt, the tampering team creates reverse swing conditions earlier than the 35-40 over natural threshold. The effect is measurable: illegally tampered balls can reverse swing as early as 20-25 overs, giving the bowling team a substantial extra window of dangerous movement that the batting team has not experienced naturally.

Early History and Imran Khan

Ball tampering has been occurring in professional cricket for much of the game's modern history, though documentation and enforcement have varied dramatically. Imran Khan (Pakistan) admitted in 1994 that he had used a bottle cap to scratch a ball during a county cricket match in 1981, arguing that everyone in the game did it and it was not considered seriously illegal at the time. His admission renewed debate about the practice, and the ICC subsequently tightened the Laws and enforcement.

Pakistan became particularly associated with reverse swing in the 1980s and 1990s — the skills of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Imran Khan with the older ball were extraordinary. British umpires and commentators occasionally alleged ball tampering, while Pakistan maintained they were legal practitioners of reverse swing. The allegations were never formally proven in most instances, and the skill distinction between legally managed reverse swing and illegally assisted reverse swing remains genuinely difficult to establish without direct evidence of the tampering act.

Sandpapergate (2018)

The most dramatic ball-tampering incident in cricket history occurred during the third Test between Australia and South Africa at Cape Town in March 2018. During the third day of the match, TV cameras captured Australian opening batsman Cameron Bancroft using a piece of yellow sandpaper to scratch the surface of the ball while the ball was out of play. The footage was unambiguous. When questioned by umpires at the time, Bancroft initially claimed he was using a piece of tape — a story he and captain Steve Smith later admitted was false in post-match press conferences.

The Australian team's admission that the tampering was pre-planned — with team leadership acknowledging that a 'leadership group' had approved the plan — created one of Australian cricket's most serious governance crises. Steve Smith (captain) and David Warner (vice-captain) were suspended from international and domestic cricket for 12 months; Cameron Bancroft received a 9-month ban. Coach Darren Lehmann resigned. The Cricket Australia board commissioned an independent review. The incident — called 'Sandpapergate' by the media — led to significant changes in CA's management structure and conduct standards.

COVID and the Saliva Ban

In 2020, the ICC temporarily banned the use of saliva to polish the ball due to COVID-19 health concerns — saliva was considered a potential virus transmission vector. Teams were permitted to use sweat only. The temporary ban exposed an interesting asymmetry: some bowlers found swing conditions slightly reduced without saliva, though the extent of the impact was debated (sweat is also effective for maintaining shine in most conditions). The saliva ban was lifted for most conditions after the pandemic receded, though some tournaments maintained the sweat-only rule for extended periods.