The rankling history of our vaseline incident
It is 32 years all but a month since England - in Madras as it then was, Chennai as it is and where they are now - took the series in India by winning the third Test, an unprecedented three straight wins on the subcontinent, writes Mike Selvey in the
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
It is 32 years all but a month since England - in Madras as it then was, Chennai as it is and where they are now - took the series in India by winning the third Test, an unprecedented three straight wins on the subcontinent, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
It was Bedi who fanned the flames. On the second evening of the first Test match in Delhi, a change of ball had seen India's first innings plummet from a healthy 43 for no wicket to 49 for four as the replacement, from Lever's very first delivery, swung alarmingly. Lever went on to take seven wickets in the innings, 10 in the match and England won by an innings. England, meaning Lever, had been using Vaseline all along to help shine the ball, alleged Bedi, including at Delhi, a preposterous notion given the way the first delivery with the second ball swung so far down the legside from the line Lever had been ploughing for five fruitless overs, that it almost missed the return crease. "It is disgusting," said the beleaguered skipper," that England should stoop so low."
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo