The incident almost cost the opener his nascent Test captaincy career. TV pictures showed him taking dirt from his pocket and putting it on the ball, an act assumed to be an attempt to rough it the ball and make it suitable for reverse swing.

“The idea was, you see spinners do it all the time, they put their hand onto the crease and they keep the ball dry, that would be the way to do it. That’s what Salisbury was doing. I was at the other end, getting a bit of reverse at Lord’s against South Africa, and he was there sprinkling dirt on it. Innocence, total innocence from Atherton, he didn’t know what he was doing.”