South African coach Russell Domingo gives Vernon Philander his full backing

Russell Domingo

South African coach Russell Domingo jumped to the defense of pace bowler Vernon Philander, who was fined for ball tampering during the just concluded Test match against Sri Lanka, saying that it wasn’t intentional and that they haven’t tried to do anything that other teams don’t.

"No I don't think so (that we are earning a reputation). I'd hate to say that other sides are a bit better at doing it than we are," Domingo told reporters after the end of day 4.

"We don't try to do it intentionally. He (Philander) said he was cleaning it but it's (now) done," he said.

The reason for the spotlight, regarding trying to alter the condition the ball, being on South Africa is that this latest indiscretion comes less than a year after top order batsman Faf du Plessis had been fined for rubbing the ball close to the zip of his trousers against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

Domingo refused to dwell too deeply into the episode, as he hadn’t seen the video footage. He also said that he wanted the team to put the incident behind them and move forward.

The 39-year-old said: "We need to move on and put it behind us. Nine times out of ten if they have footage you will be found guilty.

"We try to play the game in the right spirit. It's not something we set out to do. Maybe it's something we should cut out completely.

"But at the same time, I haven't seen the footage so it's difficult to comment on. The umpires say the condition of the ball wasn't changed at all, and that says it all."