Tampering claims ‘a joke’ – Amla

South Africa consider the ball-tampering allegations against Faf du Plessis to be “ridiculous,” and “a joke,” and believe their stand-in captain has done “absolutely nothing wrong.” That was the message from the team’s senior-most batsman Hashim Amla, who addressed the media at the MCG on Friday afternoon, accompanied by the entire South African squad and support staff, who were present to “show solidarity”.

Du Plessis was among the group but stood in the background and was not put up to answer any questions. Instead Amla, the designated player for Friday’s media opportunity, began in the unusual fashion of delivering a mini-speech to open proceedings.

“Good afternoon everybody. As you can see we have the full team here behind us,” Amla said. “The reason everybody is here is to stand together and to show solidarity to what has been something we actually thought was a joke. It’s not April. But the allegations against Faf were really, for us, a ridiculous thing and as a team we are standing strong. For us it is basically a joke. The boys are here, standing strong.”

At the time, Amla was not aware that the ICC was reviewing footage of du Plessis shining the ball after licking his fingers when there appeared to be a sweet in his mouth. “Is it?,” Amla asked when told about the governing body’s investigation. “Whether it is or not, we’ve …

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