Tamper if You Will

England players, PCA, ECB, ICC, MCC and add a few more initials will stay away from the Shoaib tampering charge. Or if they are smart they will. Even Cricinfo has played it down.

Why?

I have not seen any videos yet but the pictures suggest that at worst it is no worse than what Anderson and Broad were doing in South Africa.

What was the punishment meted out to Anderson and Broad?

Nothing. Also the initials mentioned above have two apparently, relatively strong cases with the no ball issue and Butt's statement. At this point they would not like to muddy the waters with anything else. With Anderson and Broad's activities being fairly recent it will open a can of worms that all those initials above would not like brought forward at this point. The initials above have never been about complete transparency. Only when it suits them. For example no transparent investigation of the Oval fiasco was carried out. What did Fletcher and Proctor talk about and what did Proctor pass on to Hair that morning. Was there undue influence. What was Proctor doing negotiating with the team while the umpires were lifting bails. Or Koertzen's remarks alleged by Hair in his show-the-media trial. How was the ICC system of appointing umpires rigged that Hair got so many consecutive appointments to Pakistan's games. Why did the MCC call a laws committee meeting. The laws were not in doubt there was nothing to clarify which is the primary and stated reason for this committee. It was largely used as a political instrument to change the ICC decision where the ICCs own head just elected suddenly became a proponent of change though he kept very quiet in the run up to the election. The list is large.

But isn't this a form of cheating?

The way the law is written is pretty much the same as the don't ask don't tell policy of the US military. You can be labelled and punished as a tamperer without any evidence yet you are allowed to carry on as long as you deny being one and the umpires do not deem you one, arbitrarily. If ICC and MCC really consider this an offense they should have a much severe punishment. If to some extent it is considered an art then accept it.