5 cricketers who got away with ball-tampering very easily

Australian Cricket Players Arrive In Sydney — It is being argued that the treatment being meted out to the Australian skipper is partial

The video in which a devastated and teary-eyed Steven Smith apologizes to the cricket fraternity has sent across a wave of pitiful emotion on social media.

It is being argued that the treatment being meted out to the Australian skipper is partial since historically, there have been several incidents of ball-tampering, which were either given an easy punishment, or were not even reported in the first place.

Here’s looking at 5 such instances from the past when cricketers easily got away with the same ‘crime’ as Smith’s.

#5 Marcus Trescothick - the tampering helped England win the Ashes after 18 years

Trescothick used a bottle cap to alter the ball — Trescothick used mint-induced saliva to alter the ball

Former England batsman Marcus Trescothick mixed mint with his saliva, with which he altered the ball and helped England record their first Ashes win in 18 years. Nobody reported the incident until Trescothick himself revealed his wrongdoing in his autobiography.

"It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva which, when applied to the ball for cleaning purposes, enabled it to keep its shine for longer and therefore its swing,” Trescothick wrote in his autobiography.