Aussie pace great Jeff Thomson reveals ball tampering with razor

Speaking on The Betoota Advocate Podcast, Jeff Thomson confessed to using a razor on the match ball.

Australian pace great Jeff Thomson on Tuesday made a shocking revelation of once tampering with the ball during a Sheffield match between Queensland and
Tasmania.

Speaking on The Betoota Advocate Podcast, Thomson confessed to using a razor on the match ball. "We were playing at the Gabba, playing Tasmania on a flat as s**t wicket. I was bowling, Boony [David Boon] was batting I think," said Thomson, who claimed 200 wickets in 51 Tests.

"The ball was s**t. Kookaburra started making really bad balls because there was no opposition. So the s**t that they made was crap and soft. I told the umpire before the lunch break, 'This ball's s**t.' He said, 'There's nothing wrong with this.' It was like a marshmallow.

"At the lunch break, Greg Chappell said to me, 'We've got to get rid of this ball.' I said, 'I'll fix this freaking thing up'," added the fiery pacer.

Thomson then went into the details of how he tampered with the ball. "This is a true story. Remember those old razor blades? Just a blade on either side, a flat piece of steel. I put that in my pocket. I've run around the quarter seam with it and around the main seam but I pushed it a bit hard. I bowled this ball to Boony, and the thing was nearly fallen in quarters like an orange.

"After lunch, I said, 'I told you this ball was f*****, look at this,' and [the umpire] has gone, 'Jesus, I've never seen a ball do this.'

"It's got clean cuts, it's not even frayed on the stitching. It's f***ing clean cut, it was very odd. Anyway, we got a new ball and I got him out and we won the f***ing match. That's how you cheat," said Thomson.

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