Australian legend Allan Border in favour of natural ball-tampering

The infamous 2018 Cape Town ‘Sandgate’ catastrophe saw Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft being banned from cricket. Cricket Australia (CA) banned Smith from attaining a leadership role for two years, while Warner was handed a lifetime ban from captaincy. 

Former Australian batter Allan Border has now given his support to the left-hander and called for the upliftment of his lifetime captaincy ban. 

Allan Border on the penalty

The former skipper believes the punishment was a bit “harsh” since the players admitted to their wrongdoings and they should have been given some grace points for it. 

Border believes natural ball tampering should be permitted

“Reverse swing is a huge weapon to have at your disposal. On the flattest of wickets, you can still get people out. There’s one line of thought that you’re not allowed to touch the ball, but there’s also the school of thought that you should be allowed, if you get the ball in your hand… just scratching the ball and working on it over a period of time, and you get the ball reverse swinging… what’s wrong with that?

The limits to ‘natural’ ball-tampering 

The lines of ‘legal’ ball tampering can be blurry and dangerous to play with. Although reverse swing is an integral aspect of cricket, manipulating the physicalities of the ball is ‘unnatural’ and against the spirit of the game.  

Read: Border has urged Travis Head to follow Matthew Hayden's batting blueprint.