Umar Gul clarifies his remarks made to the press in which he had allegedly accused some prominent International cricketers of ball tampering

Umar Gul was caught up at the centre of a ball tampering controversy yesterday during a post-match press conference at the National Stadium Karachi, when he accused two England bowlers of engaging in acts that alter the condition of a cricket ball.

In a statement provided exclusively to PakPassion.net by Gul, he sought to clarify the comments he made at yesterday's press conference. “Having seen the video of my comments, I can see how my comments may have been misconstrued with respect to ball tampering.”

Gul added “Talking to the media after the semi final of Faysal Bank Twenty20 tournament being played at National Stadium Karachi, I was asked to respond generally to Shoaib Akhtar's recently made statement on ball tampering. I clarified that the term ball tampering is often misused.”

Gul further added in the statement “I was explaining that the ball gets scratched when it is thrown against the rough surface or hits the advertisement boards along the boundary rope. In this manner, I said, every bowler can be accused of doing it.”

Gul also confirmed his belief that, despite calls from numerous former cricketers, ball tampering should never be legalised through formal incorporation into the Laws of Cricket “I further stated that ball-tampering should not be legalised as swinging the ball in reverse is an art and cannot be done only by tampering with the ball. This art should be respected I said. The names I mentioned were in the same context and at no point did I try to accuse any individual bowler of ball tampering.”