Shahid Afridi is not the only cricketer who says all teams tamper with the ball. His countrymen, World Cup-winning former captain Imran Khan and another ex-skipper Rameez Raja also feel the same.
Afridi, who was banned for two Twenty20 matches for tampering with the ball in the fifth and final One-Day International against Australia in Perth claims that all teams resort to such tactics to exploit the conditions to their advantage. Imran backed Afridi's claim, saying only the sub-continental teams are punished for the offence.
'It is nothing new. When we were playing and developed reverse swing, we were accused of being cheats and tampering with the ball, but when the English and other bowlers did it became an art,' he said.
Australian pacer Shaun Tait too backs Afridi's claim. He says though he is yet to see it himself, there is little doubt that such cheating tactics are not new in international cricket.
'I am sure there could be players that do it, but not that I have seen. I have never engaged in biting the ball,' Tait said.
Some of the game's former players have even called for the malpractice to be legalised to put bowlers at equal footing with batsmen.
They say allowing bowlers to alter the state of the ball will give them a chance in a game that has been slanted towards the batsmen over the last 20 years.
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