Former England captain Michael Vaughan tweeted:“What is it he is putting on his spinning finger? Never ever seen this.″⁣ Australia’s former captain Tim Paine replied “interesting”,when questioned about it on Twitter.

Another former captain,Michael Clarke,claimed Jadeja did not do anything untoward but believes he should not have applied the cream with ball in hand.

“He’s bowling so much,so he’s probably got a blister or cut on that finger. What he should have done there,he should have given the ball to the umpire and stood in front of the umpire while he was putting it on his finger,” Clarke said on theBig Sports Breakfast.

“I don’t look at that and think it’s a thing. I just wish he didn’t have the ball in his hand.

“If he chucks the ball to the umpire and does that,I don’t think there’s any comment made about that. It’s just the perception.

“I don’t think there’s anything to it. I could be 100 per cent wrong.”

While there is nothing to show Jadeja directly applying the substance to the ball,there are questions about whether it could be transferred from his finger as he puts the ball into his hand to bowl.

Law 42.3 prevents players from rubbing the ball on the ground,interfering with its seam or surface,or using any implement that can alter the condition of the ball to gain an unfair advantage.

It is a law that has been widely flouted,as fielding teams attempt to make the ball swing. Tony Greig claimed cold sore cream and vaseline were used to keep one side of the ball shiny when he started playing county cricket in the 1960s.

Former England opening batterMarcus Trescothick confirmed in his autobiography that England’s defining 2005 Ashes victory was aided by peppermint sweets.

“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 it to keep its shine for longer and therefore its swing,” he wrote.

Former South Africa captainFaf du Plessis was found guilty of ball-tampering twice,in 2013 for rubbing the ball on a zip to scratch it,and in 2016 in Hobart for “applying saliva and residue from a mint or sweet”.

Roughing up one side of the ball to create reverse swing is now more in vogue,which washighlighted by the disastrous ball-tampering incident by Australia in South Africa five years ago,when Cameron Bancroft was caught with sandpaper on the field.

Bancroft was subsequently suspended for nine months. Then captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were each suspended for a year.

Sports news,results and expert commentary.Sign up for our Sport newsletter.