CHANDIMAL IN BALLTAMPERING ROW
SRI LANKAN SKIPPER PENALISED IN 2ND TEST AGAINST WINDIES
GROSISLET(STLUCIA): Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal was charged by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday with ball-tampering in the second Test against the West Indies.
Chandimal has denied balltampering by using sweets and will face a hearing at the conclusion of the Test, the ICC said.
“Dinesh Chandimal has pleaded not guilty to breaching Article 2.2.9 of the ICC Code of Conduct and, as such, Javagal Srinath of the Panel of ICC Match Referees will hold a hearing following the conclusion of the St Lucia Test against the Windies,” said an ICC statement.
Match officials charged Chandimal after television footage from the final session’s play on Friday appeared to show the captain taking sweets out from his left pocket and putting these in his mouth, before applying the artificial substance to the ball which the umpires viewed as an attempt to change its condition.
Video evidence will be used in the hearing, which will also be attended by the match officials as well as members of the Sri Lanka team management.
Chandimal will have the backing of the Sri Lanka cricket (SLC). In a statement on Saturday, SLC backed their players.
“SLC shall take all necessary steps to defend any player, in the event any unwarranted allegation is brought against a member of the team,” it said.
On Saturday, play started two hours late after the Sri Lankans refused to take the field following a decision by umpires Aleem Dar and Ian Gould to charge the tourists with altering the state of the ball during the latter stages of Friday’s play. Sri Lanka had already been handed five penalty runs .
The latest row comes close on the heels of ball tampering scandal in Cape Town when Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera tampering with the ball during the third Test.
Trailing in the three-match series after losing the first Test, Sri Lanka lead by 89 runs and will be looking to Mendis (53 not out) and Chandimal (27 not out) to carry their effort deep into the afternoon session. Brief scores (Lunch Day 4) : Sri Lanka 253 & 136/4 (Kusal Mendis 53*, Dinesh Chandimal 27*; Shannon Gabriel 3/22)
ICC MULLS HARSHER PUNISHMENT
The world body is likely to push for harsher punishment for ball tampering during its annual conference in Dubai later this month. Currently the maximum sanction under a Level 2 charge is ban of one Test or two ODIs, while under Level 3, a player is slapped with a ban of four Tests or eight ODIs.
ICC chief executive David Richardson said the cricket committee “viewed” ball tampering as “cheating.”
“... Therefore, they (committee) were very strong that we need to increase the sanctions available for that type of conduct,” Richardson was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo.
“We are considering bumping it up to Level 3 and even considering the range of penalty slightly higher as well,” Richardson added.