LIBEL-WRITS and bad feelings are currently being dished about, with the painful effects of a late, inswinging yorker. The issue of ball-tampering is becoming dirty washing for Test cricket, if not for the game as a whole. While at the moment it is a humorous piece for news and current-affairs programmes to garnish their usual heavy diet of politics, tragedy and war, it may tarnish the game's image, and somewhere someone may lose out.

Even in the recent Sarfraz v Lamb bout at the High Court, BBC reporters couldn't resist adding the sober judge's quips about adjournments being `bad light stopped play', while `playing a long innings' and `opening from the pavilion end' predictably were used in an `amusing' way. There is the risk that this issue either flares into a `We won't play you any more' playground retort ( Imran Khan has already suggested that Pakistan won't play England again until beyond the year 2000), or the game becomes a laughing stock and perhaps investors may decrease their sponsorship. With that court case resulting in both sides claiming a victory (impossible) and the TCCB apparently `fudging' the issue, something nasty still lurks under the carpet awaiting to creep up someone else's leg at another time.

 Glamorgan seamer MARK FROST: `Reverse swing is a natural part of the ball's lifetime and can be enhanced'

The various authorities ought to reconcile this, to avoid a spate of mudslinging: `Ah, but when we played together in'34 you had that bottle-top in your pocket,' or `No I didn't, I've never cheated, but you emptied half a jar of Vaseline on your flannels every time we went out to bowl!' What is your reaction now when a past great stands up and claims total innocence and a completely honest playing career?

So what of it, do bowlers scratch, pick and rub cream in to the ball? Well, yes, but not all of them, and not all do all three things. I haven't, he writes in a squeakily clean way, but it does go on as they say. Carefully avoiding libellous comment and individual names, it has to be said that dressing-room and bar talk leaves one convinced, with a feast of funny, interesting and writ-seeking stories.

My two-penn'orth is that some people can make the ball swing late at pace, and this should be encouraged. This is a great spectacle to watch, even if it is your own team on the receiving end. Unplayable deliveries, like huge sixes and John Carnes's free-kick specials, are a delight to watch and an art that people want to see. So the authorities should allow it, perhaps with a rider that no artificial substance be permitted and the only grease to be applied as that of the elbow variety.

Surely there is a honed skill to be seen, with deliveries dipping in late and batsmen suddenly finding that their innings has taken on a different challenge midway. If a bowler has been blessed with the ability to bowl quickly, there is no skill in banging it in short off the toecap. It is boring to watch and ultimately intimidating, so the present rule should still apply.

There are risks involved with mutilating a ball. If it must survive for 85 or 100 overs, then it may become the proverbial `rabbit's head'. Some do that without any help! My experience in county cricket is typical, in that quite often orthodox movement in the air can dry up for no apparent reason. Midway through an innings that welcome delivery for the batsman, the `dead-onner', becomes your stock delivery. After a few overs of frustrated toil you experiment by turning the seam round the other way, and, lo and behold, a modicum of swerve is observed!

Natural moisture from fielders' and bowlers' hands can result in the shined side becoming slightly heavier, as it has absorbed sweat and who knows what other bodily secretions on a hot August day at Abergavenny. Thus reverse swing is a natural part of the ball's lifetime and can be enhanced, which is often a relief when they are 234 for 1 and it's the first of four days. Unfortunately I've found that as soon as you make this discovery the captain usually offers a non-negotiable rest `n' graze, while someone else gleans a wicket!

If ball-tampering really is rife then legislation will bring about no great change except for certain Test matches. If, however, the authorities remain sitting poised upon that lofty fence, it could be a case of `More fudge cake, sir?'

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