Former Kiwi cricket star Chris Pringle considering money offers to talk about his ball tampering

Former Black Cap Chris Pringle is considering offers of up to $20,000 to relive – and potentially recreate - his controversial ball tampering exploits.

Pringle revealed in his 1998 autobiography, Save the Last Ball for Me, that he had resorted to ball tampering during a test on the Black Caps tour of Pakistan in 1990.

Pringle – who played 14 tests and 64 one-day internationals for New Zealand – took to the ball with a bottle cap in a bid to get reverse swing. The move worked, with the bowler finishing with match stats of 11 wickets for 152 runs.

Twenty-three years after his final match for New Zealand, he is now in high demand to talk all things ball tampering after the Australian cricket team has been engulfed in controversy after being busted for during the test against South African in Cape Town.

But anyone who gets Pringle to talk is expected to have to shell out financially first.

"I don't doubt you would like to talk to me, everyone wants to talk to me. But I don't want to talk about that unless I am compensated to talk about that," Pringle told the Herald.

"That is how it is. I know you guys are in the business of selling newspapers and I get that you are a commercial operation. It [ball tampering] is a very sensitive issue so for me to want to go down that track … I would need to be compensated to do so."

When asked if the figure Pringle was considering for going public was about $20,000, he responded: "Correct".

He said some media outlets had offered a sum in that range.

"They have … from Australia and Europe."

Pringle also confirmed that one New Zealand-based media outlet had also offered him money to tell his story.

"One place has," he said. "But not the kind of money that I would accept to do it."

The Herald had initially contacted Pringle to both seek comment on the latest ball tampering controversy which has erupted in South Africa, and also to see if he would recreate his on-field antics in Pakistan.

But Pringle said: "Why would I want to do that unless I was being compensated. That is not a positive story, so why would I want to just then [do it].

"I don't have a big ego so there is no demand for me to do that, to sensationalise it further. But as I say, if it is a business arrangement it is a different story."

The latest ball tampering scandal in South African involves Australian captain Steve Smith and batsman Cameron Bancroft. Smith has admitted to planning and Bancroft said he tampered with the ball on day three of the test in Cape Town.

The tampering has led to global criticism of the Australian cricket team – including for the axing of Smith as captain, David Warner as vice-captain and coach Darren Lehmann.

Cricket Australia's head of integrity Iain Roy and team performance manager Pat Howard have travelled to South Africa to begin interviews with Smith, Warner, Bancroft and Lehmann.

Roy will then decide how players are charged under CA's code of behaviour.