No place for ball tampering in the game, says Australian quick Ryan Harris

Ryan Harris (left) feels that ball tampering needs to be harshly dealt with

Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris has compared ‘ball tampering’ to ‘match fixing’ after South African pacer Vernon Philander was found found guilty of trying to alter the condition of the match ball during day 3 of the 1st Test match against Sri Lanka at Galle.

Philander has been fined 75% of his match fees for violating clause 42.1 of the ICC's match playing conditions as the umpires noticed him "scratching the ball with his fingers and thumb" while reviewing the videotapes at the end of the day’s play.

The 34-year-old has slammed the South African opening bowler for indulging in ball tampering and said that, in his eyes, it is tantamount to match-fixing.

"It's the same as match-fixing for me, it's the same sort of thing" Harris told cricket.com.au. "It's disappointing. There's no room for it, no need for it."

Harris, who is currently working as a mentor of the Australia A bowlers, expressed surprise at good bowlers of the ilk of Philander needing to resort to such dirty tactics.

"I don't know the guys (in the South Africa team) individually too well but I wouldn't have thought teams would go out and do that deliberately," said Harris. "Obviously they do."

"Steyn, Morkel, even Philander, they're good bowlers."

He also dismissed suggestions of the latest controversy taking the shine off Australia’s Test series win against South Africa, earlier this year, in any manner.

"We beat them, simple as that we won," said Harris. "Whatever they did, didn't work, if they did anything."

"The ball was reversing in South Africa, our ball was reversing a bit. There's no real impact.

"We came out on top of that and won the series."