English bowlers regularly doctor the ball with breath-freshening mints to achieve the type of devastating reverse swing that left Australia's batsmen reeling during the Ashes series, New South Wales paceman Nathan Bracken said on Wednesday.
While Bracken did not directly accuse England's fast bowlers of tampering with the ball to achieve their first Ashes victory in 16 years, he did say the practice was commonplace in England.
Bracken, a fringe Test player who played no part in the Ashes, said English bowlers managed to get reverse swing by sucking a particular brand of mint available in Britain then polishing one side of the ball with their saliva.
Bracken said he first encountered the magic mint during a stint playing county cricket at Gloucester in 2003.
English bowlers Andrew Flintoff took 24 wickets at an average of 27 and Simon Jones took 18 wickets at 21 during the five Test Ashes series.