Melbourne, Aug 25 : Former England opening batsman Marcus Trescothick has revealed in his autobiography the secret behind the devastating swing bowling that took England to its historic 2005 Ashes.

The former England opener provided the biggest shock that how they cheated by using sweets to help shine the ball during past Ashes series.

Trescothick said he experimented with a variety of sweets, which he used to suck on, and then used sugary saliva on the ball to help it swing.

Cricket laws forbid the use of any artificial substance on the surface of the ball, The Australian reported.

"I was firmly established as the man in charge of looking after the ball when we were fielding. 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 - and through trial and error I finally settled on the best type of spit for the task at hand," Trescothick writes.

England's ability to get the ball to reverse swing early in the Australian innings regularly led to the downfall of the top order.

English bowlers Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff regularly swung the ball inside the first 20 overs. Flintoff took 24 wickets at 27 runs and Jones 18 at 21 in the series.

Trescothick admits in the book that he even experimented until he found the right brand of mint.

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

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.

Meanwhile, an ICC spokesman said the matter would be looked into if it was "appropriate".

ANI