‘Ball tampering accusations can be a nightmare for umpires’: Ex-international official on alleged ball tampering controversy | Cricket News

Even though Cricket Australia had cleared the India ‘A’ team of any wrongdoing after an alleged ball tampering controversy during the India A vs Australia A match in Mackay, umpire Shawn Craig has been hailed fellow umpires in Australia.
The ball tampering allegations surfaced on the start of the Day 4 of the India A vs Australia A match, which will be followed later this month with the big Border Gavaskar Trophy series.
According to Sydney Morning Herald, umpire Shawn Craig, a former middle-order batsman for Victoria, was heard on the stump microphone telling the Indian players: “No more discussion, let’s play… you scratch it, we change the ball.”
Post the incident, the ball was changed and Australia A won the match seven wickets.
“More power to Shawn for not ignoring their actions. But it is important that officials’ actions and language does not further provoke or inflame. It is fine being official but you don’t want to be officious. I felt Shawn should have had the other umpire with him if it was official. Ball tampering accusations can be a nightmare for umpires because players obviously try and hide what they are doing. Unless you have television footage (in this case there wasn’t any) it becomes a matter of one man’s word against another,” former international umpire Tony McQuillan, who officiated in one Test and 14 ODIs, told The Daily Telegraph.
The Herald reported that India A skipper Ishan Kishan could be heard telling Craig that it “is a very stupid decision” to play with the new ball, to which the umpire replied: “Excuse me, you’ll be on report for dissent. That’s inappropriate behaviour. Because of your actions we changed the ball.”
With the match holding a status of an unofficial Test played in Australia, Cricket Australia’s laws have been in place for its regulation. Their playing conditions state that the umpires are allowed to change the ball without enforcing the requisite five-run penalty.
The playing conditions also state that ball-tampering is a level-three offence, for which a ban can also be imposed on a player. Cricket Australia said in its statement that “the ball had to be changed due to deterioration”, while both the managers and the captains were informed of the decision before the start of the day’s play.
Another international umpire on the condition of anonymity termed Craig’s decision as an old-fashioned one but direct. “That’s just Craigy – he is very frank. It was very direct stuff but that’s good. It was quite old-fashioned but he got his point across. Good on him,” the international umpire told The Daily Telegraph.