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Pakistan cricket team’s coach Bob Woolmer was forced to defend his reputation on Sunday when it was claimed South Africa players tampered with the ball when he was in charge of the team 10 years ago.

Woolmer’s Pakistan team have been at the centre of the row which has rocked international cricket which began with last weekend’s forfeiture of the fourth and final Test and continued with umpire Darrell Hair’s demand for 500,000 dollars to resign in the wake of the uproar.

Now, on the eve of the Twenty20 international against England in Bristol on Monday, Woolmer reacted to claims that South Africa players lifted the seam.

The claims were made by former International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Barry Jarman who alleged that during a triangular one-day tournament involving South Africa, Zimbabwe and India in early 1997 a match ball confiscated after just 16 overs - still in Jarman’s possession - bears the ravages of tampering by Woolmer’s team.

At a loss to recall anything of the sort, the coach said: “I just cannot and do not understand why Barry Jarman has said this. As far as I’m concerned, it’s fiction. As far as I know, I don’t ever remember a ball being taken off after the 16th over. I surely would have remembered it.

“I wasn’t ball-scratching. I’m the coach. What does he think … that I teach ball-scratching?” Woolmer said.

A mystified Woolmer has even taken the step of contacting the officials in the match he believes is in question — and he reports they are unaware of any wrongdoing. “Go and ask the two umpires in the same game that I’m supposed to have done this,” he advised. “They will say that they don’t know anything about it.”

Source:The News