Pak great Waqar says ‘glad ball-tampering claims not directed at sub-continental teams’

Sydney: Legendary Pakistani fast bowler Waqar Younis has claimed ball-tampering is still rife in the game, and added that he was glad these accusations have not been directed towards any team from the sub-continent.

Waqar had not seen the drama unfold in Hobart on Tuesday, but was hardly surprised when told of the accusations being hurled by the Sri Lankans at Australian quick Peter Siddle. Waqar was banned and fined 50 per cent of his match fee for lifting the seam off the ball during a one-day game against Sri Lanka in 2000. “To be really honest, I`m not surprised. If people want to close their eyes and say, ``Oh, it`s not happening and cricket is very clean``, you`re kidding me, that`s rubbish,” News.com.au quoted Waqar, as saying. “There`s some sort of tampering going on. If you go back to the 1960s and 1970s, you``d see players putting Vasoline on the ball, people eating mints and putting their saliva on the ball, or picking at the seam. There is heaps going on,” he added. “All I`m saying, when this happened during our time, I don`t know if it was to do with we coming from the sub-continent and we were just too good and people didn``t like that. Now this has come. It doesn`t really surprise me,” he said. Waqar added: “If you come to the subcontinent and the pitches they play on, you still see people throwing the ball around on the ground, trying to scuff it up as soon as possible. The England team do it.” “Sometimes they pick on certain teams. It`s good that it``s happened in another part of the world other than the subcontinent,” Waqar concluded. ANI