England captain Alastair Cook said a report claiming players in the ongoing Ashes were using silicone tape on their bats to avoid nicks being detected by "Hot Spot" technology was "rubbish".
The allegations were made by Australia’s Channel Nine television on Wednesday, with England batsman Kevin Pietersen said to be one of the players under suspicion.
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“When you get called a cheat I think you quite rightly want to clear your name pretty quickly when you haven’t done anything wrong,” Cook said Thursday.
The opening batsman added: “Players have been putting tape on their bats for years. I just think the actual story is a load of rubbish in terms of why people are putting tape on their bats.
Fibreglass tape on their bats, that’s been going on for years. That’s just to protect the bat to make it last longer. I think that whole story we have to rubbish it because it is rubbish.”u00a0