The (w)art of reverse swing

In cricketing circles, reverse swing is an art. But only if you are able to produce it with a cricket ball, and you are not from the Indian subcontinent. If you happen to play for India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka, it is a wart: a pestilence that must be stamped out by accusing the teams of cheating and ball-tampering.

Sour grapes!

Pakistan's fast bowlers have historically been targetted as cheats (partly because nobody else could perform this magic, and largely because other teams were clueless against it). When England managed to wrap rings around Australia in the last Ashes series, reverese swing graduated to the level of "accepted tactics". As long as you are not from the Indian sub-continent.

Simon Jones now defends all of England with this fine statement reported by Cricinfo:

"People who say reverse swing is not possible without ball-tampering obviously know nothing about cricket," he told The Western Mail. "I know what I did was legal. I would never do anything outside the laws of the game."

Let us not get into an argument about Jones' honesty and integrity. If he indeed shaped/conditioned the ball "legally" to aid reverse swing, let us take his word for it. Maybe he should release a list of "legal" ways of achieving reverse swing. The biased ICC can then allow only these actions, while rejecting anything else that comes from... well, you know where.

Or perhaps, the ICC can just get a spine and mandate regular checks on the ball by the match refereee. And not just when a team from the sub-continent is bowling. It is time the ICC got its act together, instead of bickering about purely financial matters such as ambush marketing and bat logo sizes.