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South African cricket captain to face official hearing over ball tampering claims

Xinhua, November 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Africa's cricket captain Faf du Plessis will on Tuesday face an International Cricket Council (ICC) hearing at the Adelaide Oval, following claims he engaged in ball tampering during his side's Test match winning over Australia in Hobart earlier this month.

On the fourth day of the Hobart Test, du Plessis was caught on camera using what appeared to be a mint candy to shine the cricket ball -- something prohibited by cricket's governing body.

The ICC said the hearing had been expedited "in order to protect the integrity of the Adelaide Test," and while du Plessis is yet to publicly comment on the allegations, he retweeted a message from English cricketer Matt Prior that "every single team does it".

The announcement comes less than 24 hours after a bizarre altercation between a member of the Australian media and the South African captain at Adelaide Airport on Monday. The Nine Network reporter was manhandled and shoved into a glass window by South African security official Zunaid Wadee while seeking comment over the claims.

It is unclear whether or not South Africa -- known as the Proteas - will be in hot water after the security member's heavy-handed tactics, though team manager Mohammed Moosajee released a statement late on Monday addressing the incident and defending Wadee's actions.

"This is the third incident of a reporter aggressively harassing our players," the statement said, "The 'reporter' at the airport disrespected us and continued to harass Faf for comment."

"The 'reporter', who also had no official accreditation, then proceeded to lunge towards Faf with an unknown object causing a direct breach of security protocol.

"Throughout the tour we have respected all our media obligations and treated media with utmost respect.

"At the same time, we would like to see this respect reciprocated and will not accept such behavior as displayed by the reporter."

It is unsure how Cricket Australia or the Nine Network -- the company for which the reporter works -- will respond, particularly as Nine is the television rights holder for broadcasting international cricket in Australia. Endit