"If he (Anderson) was trying to scratch it he was scratching the wrong side. I am sure that is not the case. We've had a good couple of days and there hasn't been too much positive press from their (Australia) point of view. It's a bit of pommie-bashing. You've got to laugh it off and put up with it."
Stuart Broad later picked a piece of leather off the ball with the permission of the umpires. Nine then broadcast a freeze-frame image of Anderson looking as though he was picking the ball with his left thumb. "I'm not sure you are allowed to use your fingernail there," said Shane Warne on commentary. Michael Slater said: "That's interesting, you can't get your nail into the ball. That's a no-no."
Mike Hussey, another ex-Australian cricketer working for Channel 9, predicted trouble for Anderson with the match referee. "It didn't look great, to be honest. There might be a little bit of a 'please explain' there for Jimmy Anderson."
When asked about their comments, Bayliss's response was to point out they also may have done something similar in the past: "I haven't heard what they said but they were players once too."
The story was picked up by several media outlets in Australia including the news arm of Cricket Australia's official website.
England asked for the articles to be removed online and headlines using the emotive phrase of 'ball tampering' were toned down, but it still featured prominently on Channel 9's news bulletin at the end of play on day four.
On Twitter, Mitchell Johnson stirred the pot by asking how England were able to extract reverse swing after only 10 overs and Mitchell Starc's wife, cricketer Alyssa Healy, suggested Anderson could be in trouble on a day when Australia were under more pressure on the field than at any stage so far this series.
Bayliss is one of the most laid-back coaches in world cricket but he knows how a ball-tampering row erupted in Australia last year when South Africa captain Faf Du Plessis was caught on camera rubbing saliva on the ball while sucking a sweet, and wanted to quickly check with the umpires if there was anything going on.
"The umpires spoke to both captains about throwing ball into rough areas," he said. "Every team in the world does that. The umpires just don't want it to go overboard. Both teams have taken it on board. I had seen some headlines on Channel 9 news. They (the umpires) must have seen it. Kumar said 'don't worry there is absolutely nothing in it'. And his words were it was a 'beat up', and nothing wrong with it."
The ball-tampering allegations fall a little flat when it is noted that Anderson was supposedly digging his nails into the polished side of the ball. A bowling team would want to rough up the other side to increase the likelihood of swing through the air.
Drop-in squares at modern Australian cricket grounds are lusher than a natural cricket square. On a traditional cricket surface the ball will be scuffed on old, used pitches adjacent to the pitch in use but on the MCG drop-in the used wickets have grown over so there is little help for the bowlers from the natural environment.
All three Shield matches this season in Melbourne have ended in draws and Mitchell Marsh, who played here for Western Australia, admitted "reversing is a big tactic" by sides desperate to take a wicket at the MCG.
England won here in 2010-11 by optimising reverse swing brilliantly and their seamers in this match have managed to gain more movement through the air than their Australian counterparts. It is why David Warner was so subdued as Australia battled to hang in.
"There is not a lot you can do on a wicket such as this," said Bayliss. "You hope you can get the ball to reverse and play a few tricks. It will go through a bit of a period (when it moves) but then it rains, gets wet and stops reversing."
On a tour that has included head-butts, beer throwing, a match-fixing story and sledging, ball tampering was about the only news story still waiting to happen.
Footage on BT Sport showed Joe Root sucking sweets before polishing the ball but with the match referee clearing his team of ball tampering, it is a row that should blow over quicker than most of the incidents on this tour so far.
