ISLAMABAD – Former Test umpire John Holder has made an allegation thatKapil Dev, Imran Khan and Wasim Akram were among the ball tamperersduring Sachin Tendulkar’s debut series in 1989.
According to a report in Mumbai Mirrorlink>,Holder said that tampering was so blatant that the umpires had to getcaptains and the managers of both Indian and Pakistani team together toreprimand them on the illegal deed.
Holder said that, along with John Hampshire of England, he officiated inthe first test match where both umpires were from the neutral countries.
This happened to be the iconic Lahore Test match between traditional rivalsIndia and Pakistan. The series became a highlight in the history of Indianteam because of Tendulkar’s debut, Sanjay Manjrekar’s stunning performance,and India saving the series with a draw.
“A wicket would fall – and in those days the umpires didn’t necessarily gethold of the ball after every over – and the players would just stand therescratching it. And it got to a point where despite what we had to say onthe field, we had to get the two captains and the two managers together. Wesaid this is illegal,” Holder to the daily.
Holder and Hampshire summoned then Indian captain and managerKrishnamachari Srikkanth and Chandu Borde and Pakistani captain Imran Khanand manager Intikhab Alam.
“The problem was we were powerless because there were no sanctions we couldapply. All the umpires could do was to change the ball for one of similarcondition. Later, there was a re-write of the laws and they decided tobring penalty runs in for ball tampering. And then they decided you couldban the bowler from bowling for the rest of the innings,” said Holder abouta different era in Test cricket.
He also accused England and Wales Cricket Board of covering upball-tampering done by their team during the 1991 Test match betweenEngland and West Indies. He went on alleging that after reporting theincident he was removed from the Test panel and didn’t umpire another Testmatch for 10 years.