Faf du Plessis calls for clearer rules on ball-tampering

What's the story?

South African skipper, Faf du Plessis, recently spoke about the stricter penalty introduced for ball-tampering by ICC, but also believes that certain rules around the same are still ambiguous.

"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," said du Plessis on Friday (June 6).

"I think it's important to say that I'm not clear yet on that matter [of tampering]," he said, adding, "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."

"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," he added.

In case you didn't know...

ICC introduced harsher penalties for ball-tampering after its annual meeting in Durban earlier this year. The ban on cricketers found guilty of changing the condition of the ball, which is now a Level 3 offence, has also been extended to as many as 6 Test matches or 12 ODIs.

The details

Du Plessis said that going forward, he would consult with the umpires to get clarity on ball-tampering rules, so as to avoid breaching them unknowingly in the future.

What's next?

It will be interesting to see how the changes introduced by the ICC will affect the game going forward. Looking at the multiple requests for clarity around those rules from the likes of du Plessis and other active players, the cricketing body might take some steps so as to bring unambiguity around the entire topic.