Sourav Ganguly feels Faf du Plessis was charged for the right reasons

In a recent media interaction with Cricinfo, former India captain Sourav Ganguly felt Proteas captain Faf du Plessis was charged for the right reasons by the ICC as it was apparent from the television sets that du Plessis was applying saliva on the ball. Ganguly conceded that he was not the first player to do this nor he would be the last but it should have been done a bit differently to avoid the focus of the camera.

When asked whether it was the right thing to charge du Plessis for ball tampering, Ganguly said that he might be the captain but you are not allowed to apply any foreign substance on the ball especially while facing the camera. Ganguly said that many former cricketers have kept on applying saliva on the ball with sweets and chewing gums in their mouth in the past but have done it differently without facing the camera. He made it clear that the sugar which gets stuck in the ball allows the ball to swing and makes it heavier just to make life a bit more difficult for the batsman.

The southpaw felt the bowlers shouldn’t be allowed to change the ball condition despite the game being dominated by the batsmen. Star batsman Hashim Amla recently said that all the allegations were baseless. He questioned that for a player like him who chews a gum throughout the match, was it possible for him to brush his teeth every time while coming on to the field.

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To this Ganguly felt that it wasn’t the point and du Plessis came under the scanner only because of the way it was seen in television. He said that as long as it is discreet and they don’t make in apparent on the camera it was not a problem. He stressed on the fact that many players including du Plessis and Amla have done this act before but in a different manner which was not quite apparent on the camera.