August 28, 2006	Monday	Sha'aban 3, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LONDON, Aug 27: Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was forced to defend his reputation on Sunday when it was claimed South Africa players tampered with the ball when he was in charge of the team 10 years ago.

Woolmer's Pakistan team have been at the centre of the row which has rocked international cricket which began with last weekend's forfeiture of the fourth and final Test and continued with umpire Darrell Hair's demand for a hefty sum of money to resign in the wake of the uproar.

Now, on the eve of the Twenty20 international against England in Bristol on Monday, Woolmer reacted to claims that South Africa players lifted the seam.

The claims were made by former International Cricket Council match referee Barry Jarman who alleged that during a triangular one-day tournament involving South Africa, Zimbabwe and India in early 1997 a match ball confiscated after just 16 overs — still in Jarman's possession — bears the ravages of tampering by Woolmer's team.

At a loss to recall anything of the sort, the coach said: “I just cannot and do not understand why Barry Jarman has said this. As far as I'm concerned, it's fiction.

“As far as I know, I don't ever remember a ball being taken off after the 16th over. I surely would have remembered it.

“I wasn't ball-scratching. I'm the coach. What does he think ... that I teach ball-scratching?”

A mystified Woolmer has even taken the step of contacting the officials in the match he believes is in question — and he reports they are unaware of any wrong-doing.

“Go and ask the two umpires in the same game that I'm supposed to have done this,” he advised.

“They will say that they don't know anything about it.”

Woolmer, echoing the hopes of England captain Andrew Strauss, believes a return to the field of play can help mark a watershed which pushes the ball-tampering crisis of the past week off the front of the agenda.

It is highly debatable whether that is realistic — particularly in light of the counter-claims from Hair, that he spoke to his employers at the ICC before he embarked on his infamous offer to resign his position.

Even with ICC charges of ball-tampering and bringing cricket into disrepute still hanging over Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq — and an emergency board meeting scheduled next weekend in Dubai — Woolmer is determined to set such thoughts aside.

“We want to play cricket, entertain everyone as much as we can and win this series,” he said ahead of the Twenty20 and the five one-dayers.

“We are looking forward to the cricket and getting everything else that's happened over the past week out of the way.

“What's happened in the past week has not been good for cricket. We just want to leave that alone now and get on with the rest of the tour.”

Woolmer remains optimistic that wish will prove achievable.

“All the players want to do is forget what has happened. We think that is possible,” he said.
—AFP