South African skipper Faf du Plessis wants the clarity of ICC’s (International Cricket Council) new penalty system for the ball-tampering offence.
Due to the recent excessive ball-tampering performances on the cricket field, ICC has upgraded the offence level to the Level 3 where the guilty player can be suspended for six Tests or 12 ODIs.
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Faf believes the new penalty system can decrease the ball-tampering offences as now the players will think twice before conducting this unsportsmanlike incident.
The Protease skipper said, “Ball tampering is a serious offence, if you put something in your mouth and you shine the ball, it’s not as serious – that’s just my opinion. But at least there is that penalty now, so when someone has the opportunity to… has a decision to make on ‘am try and do something with the ball?’, the penalties that are there now are going to make them think twice. So hopefully we will see that part of the game move a little bit in a different way.”
Faf himself also very conscious about this as he has been suspended twice for conducting the ball-tampering incident. He wants to get it clear as he is still under darkness in some important parts.
The 33-year-old said, “I think it’s important to say that I’m not clear yet on that matter [of tampering], The ICC has made the penalties a lot more strict, but they still haven’t said what is allowed and what isn’t allowed. Is chewing gum allowed? Is it not? Are you allowed mints in your mouth? As Hashim Amla said, he likes putting sweets in his mouth when he spends a long time in the field, so there’s nothing wrong with it.
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“For me, I need clarity still. I’m looking forward to speaking to the umpires before the game to make sure there’s clarity. I’m sure that Dinesh would as well. We know now that the penalties are much harsher. So what we do with the ball now – as we’ve seen with Australia – things like that, the penalties are going to be much harsher. We expect that we will see less of that in the game.”
