As ball-tampering issue took the front seat in the world cricket arena following Steven Smith’s unprecedented admission to indulge them in changing the condition of the ball during Australia’s Test match against South Africa, the Bangladesh cricket officials and players appeared to be unfazed by it.

When in cricket world, ball-tampering is nothing a new issue—some even believes it as an art to take the shine off the ball, avoiding the consistent scrutiny of TV camera and umpires eye, Bangladesh players and officials believes in fair play.

They said they never tried to take the shine off the ball in a bid to get an undue advantage and not even in the domestic cricket circuit.

“I have never seen in domestic cricket to change the shape of the ball. When we didn’t do it in the domestic circuit, there is no question of doing it in the international cricket,” said former skipper Habibul Bashar Sumon, who is now a selector of the national team.

“Our players have never done it and actually they are not used to it.”

While many great cricketers like Viv Richards, Barry Richards spoke publicly on giving the legality of ball-tampering, Bashar said, bowlers should have given some freedom to maintain the ball in normal procedure.

“I won’t speak for ball-tampering but I think bowlers should have given some freedom considering that most of the wickets in various part of the world became unforgiving on the bowlers. And the rules and regulation are mostly against the bowlers. So they should be given the freedom to maintain the ball in normal procedure,” Bashar remarked.

Board director Khaled Mahmud Sujon on the other hand said some Pakistani players who came to play the domestic cricket league here tampered the ball in some matches but they couldn’t understand it that time.

“We always try to play fair cricket and actually we have no expert to tamper the ball tactfully. I can remember in Dhaka league, in the past, some players and officials complained about Pakistan players as they believed they tampered the ball. If you look back, you will see, a Pakistani bowler gave 40 runs in first five overs and then they came back in the second spell with five wickets for five runs in five overs. We doubted about it but couldn’t say anything because there was no proof. Sometimes even we couldn’t doubt it, we then believed it as an art,” Mahmud informed.

“But it is disappointing to what proof we got from the South Africa and Australia Test.”

Mahmud however didn’t rule out that the foreign players didn’t do it in the BPL but he at the end termed the ball-tampering as the part of the game.

“Now in Dhaka Premier League Cricket, we allowed just one foreign player so the possibility of the ball-tampering in the DPL is minimal. I won’t say that in BPL, it doesn’t happen. But we couldn’t identify it. Actually those who do it, do such tactfully that there is no scope to identify it. But we have to say it is the part of the game given even many great players did it in the past.”

Basically the fast bowlers get the advantage if they could take the shine off the ball tactfully and it increased the possibility of getting reverse swing. Bangladesh bowlers are consistently trying to hone the art of the reverse swing but as of now they thrive on it.

Fast bowler Taskin Ahmed said they are trying to learn the art of the reverse swing within the rules, not taking the unfair advantage.

“Our coaches never taught us how to change the shape of the ball. We are still trying to learn the art of the reverse swing within the rules and regulations. If the ball gets older, we try to get the reverse swing and that’s it. We believe in fair play. There is no place of dishonesty,” Taskin said. Bangladesh batsman Anamul Haque Bijoy also echoed the same sentiment.

“Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan look the bowling department and they never allow anything wrong or unfair activities. Honesty is important and we maintain it. There are many tournaments in the country but no Bangladeshi players show such tendency,” he said.