Ravichandran Ashwin: “These things happen in the heat of the moment”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin believes the ball tampering incident that has rocked the cricketing community may have occurred “in the heat of the moment”.

Ashwin’s comments come after Australia captain Steve Smith and opener Cameron Bancroft admitted that they attempted to alter the condition of the ball on the third day of the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

Smith was banned for one Test and fined 100 percent of his match fee, while Bancroft was docked 75 percent of his match fee and handed three demerit points.

Ashwin is the latest Indian player to share his thoughts on the issue as Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and Sourav Ganguly have also spoken about it.

“It’s very difficult sitting at a distance and commenting on what might have happened in the dressing room,” Ashwin was quoted as saying by CricTracker. “These things happen in the heat of the moment.

“I’m not trying to stand for it but the fact remains that (cricket) is entirely tech-driven and you have to be extra careful, especially when you are in the public eye and have the responsibility to carry yourself in the utmost dignified manner as possible.

“That is one of the disadvantages of technology growing so much…I would say it is literally dictating play in terms of cricket and life for everybody. If technology hadn’t gone this far, we would not be talking about this so much.”

Meanwhile, India opener Rohit Sharma opted not to comment on the controversy.

“I don’t know if it’s relevant for me to comment about that sitting so far away. I don’t know what must have happened there,” he said.