‘It’s not cricket’: cheating row as ‘Clicky Ponting’ appears to dupe umpire

The ball is bowled, the batter plays a shot and it’s caught by the wicketkeeper to cheers all round. The batter is clearly bemused. Did he hit it? Or … did a fielder click his fingers to mimic a nick?A row has erupted in the normally friendly, if ultra-competitive, world of English club cricket after footage went viral of alleged cheating. Australian cricket will always have Sandpapergate. The North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League now has clickgate – or, as it has been christened online, “Clicky Ponting” – a play on the name of the former Australian captain Ricky Ponting.The league has promised a full investigation in response to a complaint made after Saturday’s division two match between Saltburn 2nd XI and Norton 2nd XI.A video posted on social media showing a fielder apparently clicking his fingers as the batter goes for the ball. He has been accused of trying to trick the umpire into thinking the ball clipped the edge of the bat before being caught.The bemused batter can be seen protesting to the umpire as Saltburn players celebrate. Ben Mummery, who posted the video on social media, said it was “about the worst case of cheating I’ve ever seen in cricket”.“Apparently, their keeper has a huge amount of catches this season,” he said.Mummery said he was pleased to see the video had gone viral and was uniting the cricket world: “I’m genuinely really happy it’s being exposed. Harshest possible punishment please. It’s not cricket.”The footage has been shared more than 3m times and has prompted a lively debate as amateur internet sleuths pore over previous Saltburn scorecards.Rory Cotterill, who captained Middlesbrough CC’s 2nd XI in a 29-run defeat to Saltburn in June, said a similar situation had occurred in that match. He shared a video allegedly showing the same player clicking his fingers with commenters describing it as scandalous.Authorities said they were taking the matter seriously. North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League said in a statement: “The league have received a formal complaint regarding alleged incidents in a division two game on Saturday 25 July 2026.“A full investigation has been initiated and until such time as the formal processes are complete no further comment will be made.”Saltburn won the game by 159 runs and are top of division two by 17 points. The club has been approached for comment.Clickgate is far from the first alleged cheating scandal to rock the world of cricket. One of the most infamous cases is Sandpapergate in a 2018 test match between Australia and South Africa.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionCameron Bancroft caught on camera taking a small piece of yellow material from his right hip pocket in 2018. Photograph: Sky SportsTelevision cameras caught Australia’s Cameron Bancroft trying to rough up a side of the ball with sandpaper.In his autobiography, the England test cricketer Marcus Trescothick said he had eaten Murray Mints during games in 2005 to make his saliva better at retaining the shine on balls. He wrote: “It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva which, when applied to the ball for cleaning purposes, enabled to keep its shine for longer and therefore its swing.”The sweets were extra strong mints but Trescothick “couldn’t get on with them”, he wrote. “Then I had a go at Murray Mints and found they worked a treat.“Trouble was, even allowing for trying to keep one going as long as possible I still used to get through 15 a day and the taste soon palled.”The story, was interpreted by some – especially in Australia – as an admission of ball-tampering. Having one side of the ball shinier and smoother than the other enables the ball to swing through the air more, making it trickier for the batting side.