Thursday, August 24 2006 12:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Melbourne: Former international umpire from Australia Ross Emerson has said that ball tampering has been going on for quite some time and umpires hesitate to take action against Asian teams fearing the repercussions.

"Ball tampering has been going on for years," says Emerson, who reported Pakistan for ball tampering against Western Australia in 1995 and also reported Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralidharan for chucking.

"There has been a number of occasions when there has been a suggestion or an allegation that a ball has been tampered with, but in the end most of the umpires don't want to do anything about it," he tells sources.

Emerson says taking strong action against any country from the Asian sub-continent always ended up as a racial row.

"If you accuse the subcontinental sides of anything it becomes an international incident. It becomes country versus country and you are called a racist."

Emerson welcomes fellow umpire Darrell Hair for 'having the balls to take action' and says that most of the umpires hesitate to take action fearing pre-mature end to their careers.