"How can the bowlers, for whom the ball is prepared, not know?" - Salman Butt on Australian bowlers claiming innocence
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has refused to buy the argument provided by the Australian bowlers that they were unaware of the sandpaper plot. The Aussie bowling quartet of Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc from the infamous 2018 Cape Town Test recently released a joint statement claiming their innocence and stating that they weren't in the know-how of things.
But Salman Butt explained that even the dressing room gets to know when a team tries to get the ball to reverse.
"It is not true that the bowl is reverse (swinging) and the bowlers do not know. There are players in the team who are responsible for making sure the bowlers get reverse swing. The aim is to keep it as shiny as possible and keep rubbing it over the passage of time and after a point, the ball starts to reverse. Hence, it is not possible for the team or the dressing room to know that the ball is not reversing. The moment it does, we see bowlers being changed. What Flintoff said was absolutely correct that how can the bowlers, for whom the ball is prepared, not know?" the 36-year-old said on his YouTube channel.
The whole saga resurfaced when Cameron Bacroft recently hinted that other players were aware of the sandpaper ploy. Following Bancroft's comments, the Australian bowlers involved in the 2018 Test urged everyone to move past the incident and stop 'rumor-mongering'.
"All those punished were batsmen but not even a single bowler was punished" - Salman Butt
Salman Butt also raised questions over the way the Australian board carried out the investigation and found David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft to be the guilty party. The former Pakistan batsman was astonished that none of the Australian bowlers were punished.
"Bancroft was preparing the ball. Steve Smith, the captain, knew, and even David Warner was involved. All those punished were batsmen but not even a single bowler was punished. I commend the people who made these decisions, I mean the ball is reverse swinging, the case is of ball-tampering and punishments have been given out. But no one paid attention to those who were actually bowling with it. Fear the god and stop confusing people," Salman Butt added.
In defense, the bowling quartet claimed that the umpires didn't change the ball despite knowing about the sandpaper ploy, suggesting the ball's condition had barely changed.