Sri Lankan heavies trump SA bullies in battle over Philander footage

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Galle

Strong-arm tactics by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) heavyweights yesterday trumped the SA camp’s attempts to bully the broadcasters of the test series against Sri Lanka into not showing Vernon Philander tampering with the ball.

The footage was aired yesterday - almost 48 hours after the SA fast bowler had been caught on camera gouging the ball with his fingernails during the third day’s play in the first test in Galle on Friday.

Instead of being broadcast at the time, the film was shown to match referee Jeff Crowe. Philander did not contest charges of illegally changing the condition of the ball and was fined 75% of his match fee.

Asked why the broadcasters had not screened the footage nearer the time it was shot, a television insider said, “They didn’t want to create a negative image of the game.”

Reminded that Ten Sports had aired pictures of Faf du Plessis rubbing the ball on a zip in his trouser pocket during the second test against Pakistan in Dubai in October - which earned Du Plessis a fine of 50% of his match fee for ball-tampering - the crew member said, “They put the footage on the air in Dubai and that’s exactly what happened in that instance: a negative impression was created. They wanted to avoid that happening again.”

But Times Media has learnt that the SA camp threatened to ban Ten Sports from interviewing SA’s players and to revoke their rights to broadcast series in SA if they showed the Philander footage. Similar threats were apparently delivered after the Du Plessis pictures were aired.

In September, 2011, Cricket SA (CSA) signed a deal worth R1.5-billion with Taj Television and Willow TV to broadcast SA’s home matches until 2019-20. Ten Sports is Taj Television’s parent company.

“This is the biggest deal that CSA has ever concluded and probably one of the biggest in the history of SA sport,” former CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said at the time.

Even though CSA have no right to make demands on Ten Sports in the current series, their ongoing agreement with the South Africans is a powerful incentive for the broadcasters to remain on good terms with them.

But all that did not mean much yesterday when senior figures in SLC closely connected to the Sri Lankan government came to hear of Ten Sports’ reluctance to air the Philander footage and ordered them to do so.

Within 15 minutes of SLC’s intervention, the television audience finally saw what had convinced Crowe that Philander’s actions were contrary to cricket’s laws.

The evidence was damning. Philander used his fingers and thumb to dig deeply into the ball. With his other hand, he shielded his actions from view - a strong indication that he knew what he was doing was illegal.

Asked what CSA’s stance was on the airing of the Philander footage, the body’s public relations and communications manager, Altaaf Kazi told Times Media, “We are not commenting on the matter and we have noted the International Cricket Council’s ruling and we are not going comment further.”

Of the threats that Ten Sports staff say were made to them, Kazi said, “That’s the first time I am hearing about that so I can’t really comment on that but we have obligations to the broadcasters.”