Pakistan veteran Sarfraz Nawaz in the wake up of a ball-tampering saga in Cape Town on Saturday insisted that reversing the ball is an ‘art.’
Nawaz, who is said to be the pioneer when it comes to reversing the ball during his career. However, he went on to defend the trait collectively.
“It was and will remain an art. but resorting to tampering is cheating and that was what Australians did to beat South Africa and were deservedly punished,” AFP quotes Nawaz.
Pertinently, Cricket Australia banned Steven Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft. It was following the Australian shenanigans in Cape Town against South Africa.
Smith alongside Warner is facing one year ban, as the 25-year-old Bancroft has been suspended for nine months.
Moreover, the legendary bowler Nawaz reiterated the reverse swing is not about deceiving. He stated it could be introduced without altering the condition of the ball.
“This is ridiculous to say reverse swing is cheating. You can achieve reverse swing without tampering with the ball,” Nawaz said.
Former Pakistani cricketer Nawaz has categorically denied that the skill of making the ball reverse would require gouging up of the ball.
Owing to the implications, Sarfraz cited the multiple examples while remarking it has been scientifically proven in the recent past.
“There is a conventional swing which is done with the new ball and then there is reverse swing which is achieved with an old ball and it has been proved in laboratories that reverse swing is a scientific phenomenon,” Nawaz remarked.
In the recent scandal, Australian trio was grilled for their underhand tactics during the third and penultimate Test match at Newlands.
However, the cricketing pundits termed their effort were childish which brought shame to the gentleman’s game and disgraced Australian sport in particular.
The 69-year-old Lahore-based Nawaz played 55 Tests and 45 One-day Internationals. He bagged 340 wickets across formats between 1969 and 1984.
The bowler Nawaz is widely known for his sensational figures of 86 for nine which came against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1979.
Moreover, the remarkable spell from Nawaz also saw him bagging wickets for just one run in 33 deliveries.
Interestingly, Nawaz saw World Cup-winning skipper Imran Khan delivering his best during his prime. Moreover, it was passed to legendary Wasim Akram and his new-ball partner Waqar Younis.
However, Imran maintained in his interview in 1994 that they used to tamper the ball with bottle-tops.
Sarfraz Nawaz asserted reverse swing had been referred as cheating when Pakistani bowlers mastered it. It has been eventually learned by English bowlers to term it as an ‘art.’
“When I passed the art to Imran Khan he developed it and then taught Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. and in those times everyone called it cheating but when the Englishmen started to reverse swing it became an art,” Nawaz further said.
The right-arm fast bowler Nawaz explained reverse swinging the ball is opposite to what conventional swing appears to be.
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