Melbourne, Aug 26 : Troy Cooley, ex-England bowling coach who is now in charge of Australia's fast bowling battery, has said that the English team did not have a plan to cheat during the 2005 Ashes by using sticky saliva from mint sweets to polish the ball

The cricket world has been rocked by revelations from former England opening batsman Marcus Trescothick that shining the ball with help from mints was the secret behind England's stirring Ashes victory in 2005.

Trescothick claimed that saliva from the mints aided the unplayable reverse swing of pace destroyers Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff, the Daily Telegraph reported.

But Cooley said that he has no knowledge of the mint practice and doesn't even know if it would work.

"I had no knowledge of it and I certainly wouldn"t recommend anything like that," Cooley said.

"I don't know if it would even work. I would never cheat in the game. Bowlers have used sweat and polish over the years to shine the ball. There is an old wives' tale from past years that sunscreen and Brylcreem helps the ball swing, but I don't know about that."

Trescothick wrote in his just published autobiography that it was his job to look after the ball when in the field.

"It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish," he said.

"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," Trescothick wrote.

"I had a go at Murray Mints and found they worked a treat," he added.

Sweets fell from Trescothick's pockets in a 2001 Test match and he was suspected of a similar abuse of the spirit of the game at the time.

ANI