A B de Villiers said, he was pretty upset at being held responsible for the ball-condition by the umpires during the second match against England in the ODI.The incident happened in the 33rd over while Keshav Maharaj took the ball.The South African Captain said he felt it was being implied that his players were at fault for tampering with the ball.
“The umpires (Rob Bailey and Chris Gaffaney) felt the condition of the ball changed,” de Villiers said, “in a way, making me feel that we are responsible. I was quite upset about that. I don’t know what else I can say, I was pretty upset. It’s done and dusted now, nothing happened, there were no fines given or anything like that.
“I honestly told the umpires we have nothing to do with the condition of ball, except for the fact that Maharaj bowled five overs on the trot from that end. The ball generally scuffs up when the spinner bowls a few overs. I expressed my views about that and we move on.”
Asked if he felt that the implication from the umpires was that his side had been engaging in ball-tampering, de Villiers replied: “Yes. That’s the feeling that I got and I expressed that I was quite upset about it. But like I said, no further steps were taken from both parties.
“If I can give my five cents, I felt it was a bad ball and that happens sometimes. The leather comes off and you do get that. Unfortunately the umpires didn’t agree. [But] nothing happened, generally there’s a warning or a fine, none of that happened, which tells me they realized we were innocent in this case.”
