“LOL. Must be my imagination.” That was the response from Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi last week when he found out, via Sky Sports News, that Uefa had dropped their investigation into complaints of racist chanting by Atalanta fans.

It’s not the first time that European football’s governing body dropped a racism case in March. Uefa said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Spartak Moscow captain Leonid Mironov for racially abusing Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster.

Mironov admitted he swore at the attacker but that was the end of that. Uefa believed him.

Now I’m sure those in charge of those investigations worked tirelessly day and night to come to the conclusions that they did. They say they conducted a “thorough independent investigation” for both Batshuayi and Brewster, but, alas, “no evidence to corroborate the allegations.”

While they always add that the complaints were made in “good faith,”  it’s disheartening to say the least. And once again Uefa are currently investigating claims of racism aimed at France’s Paul Pogba from Russian fans.

Not a good look from the country set to stage a major tournament in a few months, but racism in Russia isn’t new.

People have been demanding the World Cup be moved due to the ongoing racist and homophobic abuse, but authorities aren’t going to do anything about it

The same could be said about ball-tampering in cricket.

I never played the sport growing up. I always struggled to do the basics, like hit the ball with the bat.

But I always thought myself to be a fairly decent bowler.

I had my little routine which I picked up from the limited coverage I saw on TV growing up.

Ball in right hand, I would rub it a few times against my trousers/shorts, as that’s what bowlers did at the professional level, then run up and attempt to hit the stumps.

It wasn’t until I understood the game a little more, that the ball-rubbing was actually for swing bowlers or spinners and that there were other techniques to “look after the ball.”

Now in the most basic of forms, to me anyway, that is ball-tampering.

You are literally tampering with the ball to make one side better than the other.

So I was honestly shocked at the outrage surrounding the Australian trio Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.

I’ve come to realise that they clearly crossed the line when tampering with their balls, but I do find it fascinating that there are levels to this.

The Australian players may have made it too obvious, but they won’t be the only players tampering with cricket balls. 

Perhaps the International Cricket Council should be stricter with the rules, to stop players wiping saliva on the ball or forcing players to not shine the ball. 

I came across an article on www.stuff.co.nz titled: “The art of ball tampering: How to give bowlers an advantage on the cricket field,” and low and behold, the final “tip.”

“SAND PAPER — Ever noticed a cricketer with a taped up ring finger? Sometimes it's because they want to protect their wedding ring. On rare occasions, it's to mask some sand paper.

“By placing a small patch of skin coloured sand paper on the inside of the ring finger, then taping around it, players can very sneakily rough up one side of the ball at the same time as they shine the other.

“With the index and middle fingers, they will apply saliva to one side. The ring finger will be placed along the rough side, and as they rotate the ball it will be sanded back.”

Now it does go on to say that “using sand paper should see a lengthy ban given,” which is exactly what happened to the aforementioned players.

To be fair, at the start of the article it does say: “When the umpires get their hands on the ball, they will check to see if any tampering has occurred. If they suspect something is up with the shiny side, they will give it a good smell. Anything Vaseline or sun block flavoured will be replaced.”

So it’s clear that ball-tampering isn’t allowed and that people do it in the hope that they don’t get caught.

Perhaps umpires could in future check each player before they leave the pavilion to make sure there is nothing in their pockets or taped around their finger.

I do find it astonishing that, in 2018, with all the cameras recoding every match from multiple angles, people really think they will get away with altering the ball.

And it’s the same with racism aimed at players, be it from the crowd or players.

How can it not be picked up? Photographers from news agencies AFP and Reuters said they heard racist abuse aimed at Pogba — notably monkey chants — so how did the referee not hear it?

And how can Uefa not solve this case within days? It was apparently audible to anyone watching the match, so I would like to think those investigating will pop in the tape, hear the chants and take the appropriate action.

Will they strip Russia of the World Cup? Of course not.

I have so little faith in Uefa that I would be more shocked if they find the Russians guilty of racist abuse in this case.

And from what I’ve read and watched on “the art of ball-tampering” I am fairly certain the rules won’t change in cricket to stop players from looking after the ball.