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I'm John Batchelor in New England in a misty evening
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in the middle of autumn. Jeremy Zakis, my good colleague
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for many decades, is in New South Wales where it's mid-spring.
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And that means cricket time all around the world. Jeremy's
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taught me what I can learn about cricket without ever
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having played the game or even stood on a cricket
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pitch or even been to a cricket match, but I
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can watch it on TV. What I have picked up
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is the lore of crickets from Jeremy, especially the part
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where they get out of line. I've seen heavy drinking.
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I've seen a game that is called into question about
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being fixed. I've heard of a gunshot in Canada. And
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I've seen captains come and go, disgraced, sent down, and
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then getting revived with a big offer because they're sporty.
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But at the same time, I've not catalogued the many
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ways you can step out of line in cricket. And
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the new story that Jeremy brings to my attention is
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good old-fashioned cheating. Jeremy, what happened and how do they
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do it?
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Well, John, this one's a little bit of an ingenious one,
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I guess you could say. This was in North Yorkshire
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at a club called Club Saltburn. And what the cheat
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actually was, and this is where it's brilliant, is it
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capitalises on the fact that umpires in cricket don't just
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rely on their sight to determine whether a ball is
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out or whether a player has, say, hit the ball
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with their bat and it's being caught behind or it's
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basically gone through and hit the wicket. What they rely
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on is the audio. So they actually rely on being
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able to hear when the ball hits the bat. And
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what this cheat was, and it is brilliantly simple, is
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that there was a player there in Club Saltburn called
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Brian Devine who, when he saw that the ball was
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coming very close to the batsman's bat, he would actually click.
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He would click his fingers to replicate the sound of
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Load full transcript
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the ball hitting the bat, which meant that the catcher
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behind the wicket, all they had to do was catch
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the ball, and then, of course, Brian Devine would pretend
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that the player was out and the umpire thinking that
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he'd actually just heard the ball hit the bat and
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be caught behind would then get that batsman out. And
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the thing is with this, it happened so subtly in
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that how Brian was clicking that it was not detectable
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by an umpire or many of the players on the field.
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It was just so naturally done.
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But what came unstuck was the fact that with a
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lot of camera angles that are in county cricket there
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in England, it actually shows if you look very closely
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that the finger movement that Brian was doing just as
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the ball was passing the batsman. So eventually when the
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investigation got down to looking at footage, it became very
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clear what Brian was doing.
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And he had done it on so many occasions.
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It really is almost difficult to count how many. But
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there are a lot of batsmen out there in the
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English county cricket that should never have been out. The
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club Saltburn probably should not have actually won so many
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games they had. except for the fact that Brian had
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cheated so much. And, John, cheating in cricket, too, as
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you know, it's a very gentleman's game. It's a game
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held in high esteem in much of society, especially England.
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So Brian, for.
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His trouble, is now banned from playing any cricket in
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England for a whole two years. So he will not
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be stepping out on the field for another two years.
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And the club itself was also fined £ 300, which is
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around about 584 US dollars. So honestly, John, it's brilliantly simple.
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But look, honestly, if you cheat in cricket, especially nowadays
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with most matches being televised, you will get caught.
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I like it. It's ingenious. I wonder if he's being
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asked to teach it.
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I have no doubt that there are many younger players there,
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and especially county cricket, and probably some over on this
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side of the pond as well here in Australia who
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looking a little bit closely because it is very, very
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hard to discern. If you have a look at the
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video online of how he did this cheating, you'd listen
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to a normal snick of the ball on the bat
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and then listen to how he was clicking. The sound
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is identical. There's really no way to see it. And unfortunately,
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I think now because so much footage of how he
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did it has been released, anyone out there who wants
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to try this exact same trick now is going to
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figure out a better way to hide the hand movements
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but also make it sound more like it's coming from
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actually the wicket because that was another thing with how
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the investigation exposed it. Some of the audio detected the
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audio was coming from the fielding position, not the actual
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wicket or the bat itself. So that was a bit
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of a problem. But you know what? Anyone who's devious
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enough out there will probably figure a way to actually
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throw the sound of the click to make it sound
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even more legitimate.
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What other cheating methods have you heard of over the years, Jeremy?
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Well, really it comes down to two categories. It's either one,
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tampering with the ball, or two, tampering with the state
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of play. So the first one is probably the most
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known one, is tampering with the ball, which Australia, we
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got caught out in 2018 in South Africa where a
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piece of sandpaper was actually hidden in the pocket of
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one of our fielders and they were actually sanding down
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one side of the ball so that then when certain
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bowlers who had certain technical expertise came up, that rough
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side of the ball would allow them to do some very,
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very tricky bowls. Basically, it allowed the ball to swing
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and bounce and speed up in ways that is
not
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predictable by the batsmen because they're expecting the ball to
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be normal. So that's one way. And that one really
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was found out by the sheer fact, again, the television
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camera happened to catch the fielder with a piece of
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sandpaper rubbing it in between overs.
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So that's been used the world around.
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Unfortunately, Australia, we got caught out and really didn't return
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to South Africa until just recently because of it. And
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it is one way that can devastate, I guess you
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could say, a batting lineup very quickly. But the second one,
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the state of play, what typically happens is if a
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team wants to throw a game, that's when this one
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comes into effect. So basically... Either the batters will let
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really good balls go past or the fielders will consistently
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drop the ball or the bowlers will just follow the
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ball so slowly that it's very easy to hit. And
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it's done so typically to throw a game because of
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either a points advantage or some kind of draw advantage
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where you want to play a certain team in the
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future and you don't want to win the game because
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it means you'll play a better team and effectively make
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it harder for you to go through to the championships.
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or something to do with sports betting as well, of course,
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so wagering. And that's kind of been seen a few times.
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In the past.
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There is a few competitions out, or there's at least
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one investigation in Canada because of this, where a game
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was potentially thrown.
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Earlier this year in New Zealand.
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But that one is a little bit harder if you
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get down to, say, the international cricket five-day test because
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to consistently play bad over five days without.
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Being noticed, it is almost impossible.
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So typically in a T20 game where it's a very
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short game, that's where state of play kind of cheating
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can really have its due.
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But at the same time, too, A lot of teams as.
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Well have found that taking advantage of no time limits
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between overs, they, you know, as they have to swap
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ends between overs, between every six balls, basically in a
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cricket game, you do have to swap ends. The fielding
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has to change sides and all of that. Some teams
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were taking an extremely long amount of time in between
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overs to do that. So much so it would throw
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the pattern off of the other team. And while technically
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not cheating and technically it could be seen as a strategy,
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you could really sandbag the speed of the game. and
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make it difficult for the other side to really get,
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I guess you could say, their momentum.
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So, John, many, many ways to cheat that we know of.
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And honestly, there's probably some out there we don't even
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know of because no one's been caught yet. But unfortunately,
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for a game that's considered the gentleman's game, there is
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a lot of ways to really bring it down into
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the doldrums, I guess you could say.
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Jeremy Zakis, in wintry sometimes, springtime other times, New South Wales,
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Southern Hemisphere... I'm John Batchelor in definite autumn mist, northern hemisphere,
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and we'll rejoin the El Nino hunt in a few
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days' time. Thank you for listening.