Steve Smith lands himself in trouble as he is accused of ball tampering
The Australian skipper may have breached the ICC rule-book with a ball-tampering charge.
Steve Smith had an amazing outing in the Test series against England. His performances earned him his first Ashes victory as skipper of the Australian side. However, things are not going well for the batting wizard. His team lost the ODI series after another crushing defeat at the hands of their arch-rivals. Smith was also surrounded by a controversy after the game.
Steve Smith had an ordinary day with the bat after having been given out by a catch that was rather inconclusive. However, his day went from bad to worse when he was caught on tape doing something against the law. The TV replays are out and the Australian captain might just land himself in deep trouble.
Smith caught ball tampering on tape
Steve Smith has been found guilty of doing some unruly things in the past. That said, the Australian skipper was caught ball tampering in the third One Day against England. In the 34th over when England were 160 odd for four, Smith was seen shining the ball. He was applying his lip balm onto the ball.
In the ICC Code, law 42.3 states that any player can polish the ball unless and until no artificial substance is used. Smith was caught using lip balm, it might be unintentional or a ‘brain fade’ for that matter but the Australian has surely got himself into trouble. A similar incident occurred with Faf du Plessis in 2016.
The Proteas skipper was seen applying his saliva while he was munching on a mint or a lollipop of sorts. Steve Smith had a day to forget as he sounded gutted in the post-match presentation. He said that he was given out by an inconclusive replay. He left the field angrily shouting ‘no way’.
“I got given out, so I had to get off the field, unfortunately. It was probably a good thing, I wasn’t hitting them very well anyway. I was shanking them all over the place. So it gave someone else the chance to come out and bat and the guys almost got us home,” said Steve Smith in the post-match presentation.
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