There are several levels to this story that are, in terms of cricket, disturbing (I am aware of the events in this world that are far far more disturbing, but they fall outside the bounds of this post). Firstly, a match official knew about the alleged tampering at the time it happened, but the South Africans were allowed to keep the ball and take at least five quick wickets with it before the incident was addressed after play. Those five wickets meant that Sri Lanka went from a roughly even position to being well behind in the match. They never really recovered. Thus Philander cops a fine of a few thousand dollars for an action that could have secured his team the victory.
Secondly, the South Africans wanted us to believe Philander was innocent, even though they pleaded no contest to the charges. The argument is that they prefer to plead no contest and have Philander cop a fine, than contest the charges and risk a larger penalty - even though according to them he is innocent. I for one cannot understand why an innocent man would allow himself to be branded a cheat, rather than defend the charges, unless there was a strong feeling that he could not successfully defend them. This seems to be the case from their reported concern about harsher penalties. If he is indeed innocent, that can only mean that they feel that the process is too biased, flawed or worse, corrupt, for Philander to get a fair hearing. The other conclusion is that they knew or at least strongly suspected that he was guilty. The fact that they pressured the broadcaster to not show the footage of the incident in question, footage that by all accounts proves the case against Philander, more than tends to point in this direction (I have not seen the footage, but the stills I have seen are damning: https://twitter.com/saj_pakpassion/status/490930061382782976 and https://twitter.com/saj_pakpassion/status/490928529694273536) So it would seem that now we not only have a player who cheated to get an advantage for his team, but a team that covered it up.
If the argument above seems overdone for something that seems settled by short burst of footage, it is done because it is not the first time that the South Africans have gone to this line of defence. Less than a year ago, Faf Du Pleisis was charged with ball tampering in a match against Pakistan, pleaded guilty, but then argued that he was in fact innocent using the same reasoning as above. Given the events of this week, it is less likely that many people believe him. It also makes David Warner's outrageous ball tampering claims after the second test between South Africa and Australia earlier this year seem less outrageous. South Africa won that test after an extraordinary spell of reverse swing bowling by Steyn, similar to this test, except the ball went reverse uncommonly early on that occasion. The repetition of claims and charges suggests, rightly or wrongly, that there is systematic ball tampering going on by the South African team. This is not good for the sport, especially as it seems that the South Africans look likely to regain their number one ranking at the end of this series. It does nothing for the sport to have its best team under a cloud like this.
Perhaps most disturbingly of all, there is a line of "defence" out in the cricketing social media (not all of it by nobodies) that all teams do this, and South Africa are just the ones that have been caught. It is to be hoped that this is not the case. Certainly the Australians would find it hard to live down the comments by Warner, and more recently Harris, if it were ever to emerge that they were tampering with the ball in any way. If it is true that many of the international teams are doing this, then one must conclude that either the policing and penalties for the offence are not enough (after all, the two cases involving South Africa are the only examples in the last year of anyone being charged, and it would seem that the first case was not enough to dissuade the second instance), or the law needs to be revised- after all, if it is poorly followed and poorly policed, then it may be a poor law.
One suggestion is that the law be changed so that the fielding team is allowed to alter the ball by any means they like, perhaps with the caveat that is with parts of their body (as in the case of Philander and his fingernails) or their normal equipment (as with Faf and his zipper). This would be easier to police as there would be much fewer illegal actions. It would also level the playing field- both teams would have the benefit of the reverse swing generated. It would also introduce a new (valid) skill of conditioning the ball. However, if this were to go through I would also suggest that the ball not be able to be replaced until the new ball is due, even if it goes out of shape- the large advantage of being able to condition the ball slightly offset by no longer being able to get rid of a ball that wasn't working for you. This suggestion would of course mean throwing away the record books, as bowling records would most likely tumble, as indeed many batting ones have as bats have become bigger. I wonder how the history books would look on that.
