Pakistani cricket legend Wasim Akram has suddenly decided to become the guardian of cricketing morality, questioning Australia’s Pat Cummins over his reaction to Usman Khawaja’s revelations about the infamous 2018 Sandpapergate scandal. While Akram insists that an experienced bowler would immediately recognise sandpaper marks on a cricket ball, perhaps someone should remind the Pakistani legend that his own cricketing fraternity has hardly been a stranger to the art of altering a cricket ball, and apparently, Akram never notices any change.
Seriously, Wasim, are we supposed to pretend that Pakistan’s cricketing history is spotless?
Khawaja’s autobiography has reopened the wounds of the 2018 Cape Town scandal. He suggested that knowledge of the sandpaper plan extended beyond the three players who were eventually punished. Cummins has vehemently rejected the allegations, calling them ‘complete and utter nonsense’. He maintains that he neither knew about the sandpaper being taken onto the field nor participated in any conspiracy.
Akram, meanwhile, has weighed in by arguing that no experienced fast bowler could mistake sandpaper scratches for ordinary wear and tear. Fair enough. But before lecturing Australians about ball tampering, perhaps he should revisit some uncomfortable chapters of Pakistan cricket.
Remember Waqar Younis? In 2000, Waqar was actually found guilty of altering the condition of the ball during an ODI against South Africa. He was fined 50 per cent of his match fee and handed a one-match suspension. This wasn’t an allegation circulating on social media. It was an official disciplinary finding.
And then there was Shahid Afridi, who took ball tampering to an entirely different level in 2010. Caught on television literally biting the cricket ball during an ODI against Australia in Perth, Afridi initially offered the unforgettable explanation that he was trying to smell it! He subsequently admitted wrongdoing, apologised and received a two-T20I ban.
Even the legendary Imran Khan had faced controversy over using a bottle top to roughen a cricket ball.
So, Wasim, perhaps a little perspective is in order.
Nobody is suggesting that Australia’s Sandpapergate should be excused. Cheating is cheating, irrespective of nationality. But the moral outrage sounds rather hollow when it comes from a cricketing fraternity with its own well-documented history of ball-tampering controversies.
Cricket doesn’t need selective morality. It needs consistency. And that applies to Pakistan as much as Australia.
