John Holder said that tampering was so blatant, he had summoned the team captains and managers to put an end to the illegal deed.
Former Test umpire John Holder has made an allegation that Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Manoj Prabhakar, and Wasim Akram were among the ball tamperers during Sachin Tendulkar's debut series in 1989.
According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Holder said that tampering was so blatant that the umpires had to get captains and the managers of both Indian and Pakistani team together to reprimand them on the illegal deed.
Holder said that, along with John Hampshire of England, he officiated in the first test match where both umpires were from the neutral countries. This happened to be the iconic LahireTest match between traditional rivals India and Pakistan. The series became a highlight in the history of Indian team because of Tendulkar's debut, Sanjay Manjrekar's stunning performance, and India saving the series with a draw.
"A wicket would fall – and in those days the umpires didn’t necessarily get hold of the ball after every over – and the players would just stand there scratching it. And it got to a point where despite what we had to say on the field, we had to get the two captains and the two managers together. We said this is illegal," Holder to the daily.
Holder and Hampshire summoned then Indian captain and manager Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Chandu Borde and Pakistani captain Imran Khan and manager Intikhab Alam.
“The problem was we were powerless because there were no sanctions we could apply. All the umpires could do was to change the ball for one of similar condition. Later, there was a re-write of the laws and they decided to bring penalty runs in for ball tampering. And then they decided you could ban the bowler from bowling for the rest of the innings," said Holder about a different era in Test cricket.
He also accused England and Wales Cricket Board of covering up ball-tampering done by their team during the 1991 Test match between England and West Indies. He went on alleging that after reporting the incident he was removed from the Test panel and didn't umpire another Test match for 10 years.
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