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Home / Sport

Cricket: Steve Smith shoots down ball tampering claims

NZ Herald
21 Jan, 2018 07:09 PMQuick Read

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Steve Smith denies claims of ball tampering. Photo / Twitter

Steve Smith denies claims of ball tampering. Photo / Twitter

Steve Smith has shot down social media claims he tampered with the ball in Australia's 16-run loss to England at the SCG on Sunday night.

Video posted on Twitter showed Smith putting his hands on the side of his lips and then rubbing his fingers on the ball, prompting claims he had rubbed lip balm on the ball.

Under the laws of cricket, the ball can be polished by a fielder"provided that no artificial substance is used".

.@guerillacricket Did Smith just apply his lip balm on the ball? Asking on behalf of other teams that face such scrutiny 😁 #AUSvsENG pic.twitter.com/7kV1rmtIoi

— Saad Siddiqui (@saadsiddiqui) January 21, 2018

The video, taken from the 34th over, caught the eye of England's Barmy Army - but Smith laughed off the claims after the footage was shown to him by an Australian official.

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Read more: Australia crash to series defeat against England

"It was all spit," he said.

"People said something about lip balm, if you look at my lips they are pretty dry. I certainly didn't have any of that on."

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