Downfall of ‘Clicky Ponting’: Millions across globe are outraged by obscure village cricket ‘cheat’ storm – now he is dropped by his sponsor
Tourists flocked to Saltburn-by-Sea’s pier yesterday, sipping on fish and chips and Mr Whippy ice creams, but a few hundred yards inland, another Victorian landmark was eerily quiet.
The seaside town’s historic cricket ground stood empty, with its white picket fences and neatly mown outfield. Not a single holidaying school child was using the well-maintained nets or the ‘Arthur Heslop Indoor Educational Facility’. The doors of the £600,000 lottery-funded pavilion have been bolted shut.
The only thing heard were the occasional seagull heading inland from the North Sea. And this unseasonal calm turns out to be at the center of a highly toxic storm.
It is blamed on a bizarre cheating scandal that, in just a few hours, transformed Saltburn Cricket Club from a beloved local institution that celebrated its 150th birthday last year into a symbol of sporting corruption that made headlines around the world.
It all revolves around an incident in Saturday’s match against Norton Cricket Club, where Saltburn’s second XI were looking to cement their place in the North Yorkshire and South Durham League Division Two.
The footage shows the match being nicely balanced with Norton at 2 for 39 and number four batsman Noman Shabir walking towards the field. He then bowled the first delivery off Saltburn’s Sam Morrison which darted outside off stump and missed it completely.
So far it’s very normal. But as the ball passed Shabir, something very strange happened: At first slip, the standing fielder snapped his fingers.
This mimicked the sound of the ball hitting the side of Shabir’s bat. And when the goalkeeper received the ball safely, the fielding side called for the catch. Hearing the noise, the referee raised his finger to take Şabir out.
Amateur cricketer Brian Devine was caught snapping his fingers to make it look as if the batsman was caught behind even though he had not hit the ball.
Devine has been dubbed ‘Clicky Ponting’ on social media for his behavior on the cricket field
The Saltburn player was seen on camera snapping his fingers every time the ball approached the bat.
Norton batsman Noman Shabir protests that he did not touch the ball after being distributed
Although the batsman was clearly enraged, his attempt to explain to the elderly umpire that he had not actually touched the ball was in vain. Saltburn bowled out Norton for 143, giving them a thumping 159-run victory.
If it weren’t for the live streaming of the game online (as is the case with many recreational cricket matches in the online age), it would all be over. A record has been preserved on the English Cricket Board’s ‘Play Cricket’ website.
Ben Mummery, a Durham-based amateur cricketer with knowledge of a number of incidents, was therefore able to send the footage to X, where he described it as “the worst case of cheating I have ever seen in cricket”.
As of last night, this clip has been viewed more than six million times.
Viewers then began scanning the archives for other similar incidents. Immediately dozens of people came forward to suggest that Saltburn (which ironically calls itself a ‘friendly, social and inclusive cricket club’) had been using this cynical scam for more than a season.
In nearly every one of the resulting clips, the same large man is seen standing for the first shot, snapping his fingers as the ball passes the whistle. He is widely described as Saltburn’s opening batsman Brian Devine.
One particularly damning video was released by Middlesbrough CC’s second XI captain Rory Cotterill. He said that there were two more similar incidents in a match they played on Saturday, June 27, which Saltburn won by 29 runs, and that this ‘led to 15 and 16-year-old players cheating while batting’. He added: ‘I was in the non-strikers’ side at the time and unknowingly was watching them cheat in real time.’
Other cricket fans to be considered included Piers Morgan, who described the club’s behavior as ‘extreme cheating’ and a ‘disgraceful fraud’. There were numerous posters on social media bearing the name Devine ‘Clicky Ponting’ (a play on the name of former Australian captain Ricky Ponting).
A formal investigation by the cricket authorities is currently ongoing. A statement from the North Yorkshire and South Durham League includes the following statements: ‘The league has received a formal complaint regarding incidents alleged to have occurred in a League Two match on Saturday 25 July 2026. ‘A full investigation has been launched and no further comment will be made until formal processes have been completed.’
Disciplinary options include Saltburn’s expulsion from the league, which has been in operation since 1892 and is one of 30-odd “premier leagues” at the top level of recreational cricket in England and Wales. Sanctions can also include lifetime bans or suspensions for individual players or even the entire team.
Perhaps justice is already being served for Devine. It was reported that the bespectacled businessman, who played 481 matches in his 24-year amateur cricket career and was previously described as the ‘legend’ of the game in Saltburn’s social media posts, was suspended by the club last night.
I had previously reached her by phone at Northallerton Auctions, a local livestock auction house where she worked as a company secretary.
As cows mooed in the background, I asked if there was an alternative explanation for the finger-clicking (other than cheating). ‘Naturally I cannot comment on this,’ he replied. ‘Also, I can’t answer any questions because I’m at work right now.’
It was reported that Devine, the bespectacled businessman who was previously described as the ‘legend’ of the game in Saltburn’s social media posts, was suspended by the club last night.
Saltburn-by-the-Sea’s historic cricket ground, with its white picket fences and neatly mown outfield, was empty yesterday. His team now faces potential expulsion from the league
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Devine then faced the shame of being abandoned by her official sponsor, a local Indian restaurant called Spices, of which she was a regular patron.
Company owner Akmol Hussain told the Daily Mail: ‘I am so shocked and disgusted by this video and I can’t believe Brian would do such a thing. ‘I met him many times but he damaged the reputation of cricket and my restaurant.’
The task of defending his honor was left to Devine’s partner Clare’s mother, Georgina Vaughn. ‘It was just a small village cricket match and now it has become something that is talked about all over the news and social media,’ he said. ‘This is completely out of control and there’s nothing any of us want to say.’
When asked if Devine was an honest man, he replied: ‘He certainly is.’
But statistics say otherwise. They reveal that in Devine’s 13 matches for Saltburn this season, wicketkeepers have taken a staggering 39 catches. They managed only five of the seven matches he did not play. And in a single match against Shildon Railway on July 18, wicketkeeper Josh Bowes claimed at least eight catches.
To put that number into perspective, the record for wicket-takers in a single men’s Test innings over a period spanning 2,600 matches and 150 years is just seven.
Bowes, a local electrician, was the main beneficiary of Clicky Ponting’s scam. Despite playing in only half of the team’s matches, he has caught the net 31 times this season, ten more than any other goalkeeper in the league. He only managed 12 catches last season and just six the year before.
Wicketkeeper Josh Bowes, a local electrician, was the primary beneficiary of the scam. He has 31 catches this season, ten more than any other goalie in the league.
That haul equates to nearly four catches for every game Bowes plays. In the matches in which Bowes did not play, Saltburn’s goalkeepers claimed that around one catch per game was a more normal delivery.
Among the questions the league must now answer is who, other than Devine, was involved in this scam. Videos of questionable wickets show several bowlers and fielders taking the shot with great enthusiasm when the fielder snaps his fingers. However, it is of course possible for them, like the referee, to believe that they hear the sound of the bat hitting the ball.
Who knows what could be found in the WhatsApp group where team members discuss club matters, but it is unclear whether investigators will have the power to force the club to release it.
A member of the bowls club next door to Saltburn’s cricket club suggested the organization was unlikely to go out of its way to cooperate, telling me: ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if the cheating came from the top. There’s some dirty business going on among those who run it.’
Whatever the outcome, the cheating scandal is the latest in a long and vile tradition that stretches back to the sport’s earliest days and often results in updated rules.
In 1771, for example, Thomas White came in to bat in a cricket match in Surrey and made his dismissal impossible with a bat ‘entirely as wide as the wicket itself’. Two days later, laws were passed limiting the maximum size to 4¼ inches.
The ‘Bodyline’ Ashes series of 1932, in which England’s bowlers targeted the body and head of Australian batsmen in an attempt to nullify their star player Donald Bradman, led to the rules being changed to prevent large numbers of fielders being placed behind square on the leg side.
And Trevor Chappell’s famous decision to roll the ball down the ground to prevent New Zealand from achieving victory by hitting a six off the final ball of the match in 1981 saw officials update the laws to make such deliveries illegal.
Fast forward to 2018, Australia’s captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were caught using sandpaper to rough up one side of the ball to help it move erratically through the air during a Test match against South Africa in Cape Town.
And now we may have to add Saltburn’s own opportunist to the list of indignities of cheating cricketers: Clicky Ponting.
