'It would make games tighter' - England star calls for ball-tampering to be legalised

Former England batter Dawid Malan has stated that ball-tampering in cricket should be legalised. Malan, who retired from international cricket in 2024, believes that the skill gap between the batters and bowlers has widened in favour of the latter.

Malan believes that the move would make cricket more bowler-friendly, as it helps generate reverse swing, bridging the gap with the batters.

"Historically, throughout the game, people have been caught trying to tamper with the ball for years. It's not a new thing. I actually think you should legalise it - just let people scratch the ball. Obviously, do not bring things in from outside. But it's a skill in itself to get the ball to reverse swing," Malan said, speaking on BBC’s Strategic Timeout podcast.

"I think it would make cricket a lot more bowler-friendly towards the end if you can get the ball reversing. It would make games tighter, rather than teams winning comfortably with six wickets in hand," he said.

Malan further added that batters of the modern era have become skilled to a point where any advantage that the bowler could get would help them in games.

"Batters are so skilled now that if you can gain any tactical advantage with the ball - shaping it a little, reverse swinging it - you want to do everything you can. If you can get the ball to move, it makes a huge difference at the death, which are the hardest overs to bowl," Malan added.

The issue of ball-tampering has been in the news recently, as Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Fakhar Zaman were involved in an episode in the 2026 PSL, with Zaman facing a two-match ban and Shaheen being heavily fined.

The last major ball-tampering scandal that shook the cricket world came in 2018, when Australia’s Steve Smith and David Warner were banned for 12 months, along with Cameron Bancroft for nine months, as they were caught altering the ball's condition with a sandpaper substance in the Cape Town Test against South Africa.