Quote:
Originally posted by funguy:
Javed Miandad led Pakistan to England and it was an acrimonious tour with the English media accusing Pakistan fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Yunus of sharp practices namely tampering with the ball to get it to swing when it was old. There was not a scrap of truth in the allegations and was a poor excuse for losing the series. Pakistan cricket was now on a roll.
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It was pure jealousy on part of the British media and this was the famous tour when the "British umpires, the best in the world" posters were produced in Pakistan. That was after an incidence where Graham Gooch was run out by a mile and the umpire gave him not out. A throw back to the Shakoor Rana affairs. Coming back to the reverse swing the jealousy of the W's reverse swing reached such proportions that the balls used by the Pakistani team were sent to Oxford and Cambridge Uni's for analysis. It also led to the saga, lateron, which resulted in the court case between Imran on the one hand and Botham and Lamb on the other.
There was however, one sane voice, that of Geoff Boycott who said at the height of the controversies "Pakistan would have beaten England even if they were bowling with oranges".
The hypocrisy of the Brisitsh media was unbelievable that when the same reverse swing was practised by Gough a few years later it was called "art".
More comments later on.
Wonderful effort FG