Put up or shut up, says the Pakistan captain in response to unsubtantiated innuendo that Umer Gul was achieving reverse swing through unfair means. The sting in this story is in the tail:
Geoff Lawson, the former Pakistan coach, was commentating on Saturday’s match at The Oval and noted that several New Zealand pacemen achieved subtle reverse swing towards the end of their innings.
“My first reaction after reading [Vettori’s] comments was of being pretty disappointed,” Lawson told Cricinfo. “It sounded as if an issue was being made just because the New Zealand batsmen couldn’t play him. There was no great mystery to what he was doing. He was bowling it nice and full and getting it to go just enough, not metres.
“I was commentating the game, and we were noting on air that some of the New Zealand bowlers were getting it to go a little bit reverse when they were bowling full towards the end of their innings. Gul was the best bowler at the last World Twenty20 and it’s pretty disappointing for New Zealand to have made an unofficial approach. It seems Pakistan carry the cross for these kinds of things.”
