Faf du Plessis demands 'harsher' punishments on ball-tampering

The Protea skipper accepted that these incidents are happening more often and that the ICC needs to set strong rules

South African skipper Faf du Plessis has given a huge statement on the punishment given to the players indulged in ball tampering.

Du Plessis, who has been booked twice for ball tampering himself, has come out ahead of their tour against Sri Lanka and said that those found guilty of tampering the ball should be subjected to harsher punishments.

The Proteas skipper has accepted that these incidents are happening more often and that the Council [ICC] needs to set strong rules to make sure it never happens. Their hosts, Sri Lanka, are still recovering from the loss of their captain Dinesh Chandimal who was found guilty of changing the condition of the cricket ball during the St Lucia Test against West Indies.

ICC, on the other hand, is all set to implement stricter rules for this offence. According to the updated rules, ball tampering has been upgraded from a Level 2 offence to a Level 3 offence which would result in a ban of four Tests or eight ODIs which were earlier limited to one Test or two ODIs.

Seeking more clarity on this issue, Du Plessis wanted the guidelines to be more defined as which materials would be exactly considered for the same. He recalled this because he himself was booked for the same in Hobart in 2016, when he was clearly seen applying mint-infused saliva on the ball.

"I have probably said it too much but there are too many grey areas when it comes to the ICC and the rules. One, you want clarity and, two, you want consistency and that's definitely something that's not been part of that body of laws for a while now. There's a lot of captains that have been speaking about it for a lot of years so, hopefully, when they do bring in all these new things there will be a lot of clarity and, most importantly, consistency for all teams," said du Plessis.

This year has already seen two major incidents of ball tampering involving Australian trio—Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner, and Sri Lankan skipper Dinesh Chandimal.