Blatant ball-tampering took place during 1989-90 India-Pakistan series, reveals Kiran More

More claimed that ball-tampering was rampant during Pakistan tour in 1989.

Former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Kiran More has made a shocking revelation regarding the ball-tampering during India’s tour of Pakistan in 1989. He claimed that the ball-tampering was almost a norm during the Test series between India and Pakistan way back in 1989.

More, who has represented India in 94 ODIs and 49 Tests, revealed that the players from both teams were tampering with the ball as they were used to scratch ball to get it to reverse swing because it was prevalent during that time with the umpires have a minimal role in dishing out penalties for the offense.

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He further added that it was really difficult to bat at that time while saying the ball-tampering was not a big crime in those days since scratching the ball was allowed, but now, the players are punished and become a villain in the public’s eye if they found altering the ball’s condition.

More said on The Greatest Rivalry podcast: “In those days, scratching the ball was allowed, so you used to get reverse swing, big time. It was like, nobody used to complain from both sides.”

He further added, “Everybody used to scratch the ball and reverse swing the ball. It was difficult to bat, it was not easy to bat. Even Manoj Prabhakar learned on that team how to scratch that ball and reverse swing that ball and Pakistan found it challenging.”

Earlier, John Holder, one of the umpires from the 1989 Pakistan-India series, which saw the debuts of the two legends Sachin Tendulkar and Waqar Younis, had revealed in an interview said that he tried to discuss the matter with the then captains – Imran Khan and Kris Srikkanth – but no outcome came.

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Holder had told Mid-Day in 2018: “A wicket would fall – and in those days the umpires didn’t necessarily get hold of the ball after every over – and the players would just stand there scratching it. And it got to a point where despite what we had to say on the field, we had to get the two captains and the two managers together. We said this is illegal.”

He concluded, “The problem was we were powerless because there were no sanctions we could apply. Later there was a rewrite of the laws and they decided to bring penalty runs in for ball-tampering. And then they decided you could ban the bowler from bowling for the rest of the innings.”

(With Mid-Day/Hindustan Times Inputs)