JOIN US“The Aussies can talk all they like about our delaying tactics in the First Test but we saved the match fair and square,” Swann wrote in ‘The Sun’.
“Ricky Ponting reckons we used some gamesmanship which he described as ‘pretty ordinary’. I think it was tough Test cricket and absolutely straight. No amount of complaining from the Aussies will change my mind,” said the offie.
“The fact is that confusion ruled in our dressing room in the closing stages. None of the players knew how much time or how many overs remained.
“When it was eventually worked out, we needed to get the message to Jimmy and Monty straight away out in the middle. That’s why our 12th man Bilal Shafayat went out with fresh gloves and a message,” Swann said. “But he spilt some orange juice on Jimmy’s glove - so he had to go out again. Bilal, a team-mate of mine at Nottinghamshire, is as straight as they come and there is no way he would deliberately wind up the Aussies,” he said.