Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal has been banned for one Test match and fined 100 percent of his match fee over a ball-tampering charge that was brought against him by the International Cricket Council (ICC) during the second Test match against the West Indies at the Darren Sammy National Stadium in St. Lucia last week.
At the end of the second day’s play, the standing umpires Ian Gould and Aleem Dar requested video footage of the final session where it was observed that Chandimal was putting sweets in his mouth and then applying saliva unto the ball.
The umpires decided to report him for ball-tampering and a decision was made to award the West Indies five penalty runs and change the ball.
The Sri Lankans did not take to the accusation kindly and decided to protest by refusing to take the field for two hours.
Play, which was due to start at 9:30 am, did not get underway until 11:30 am, protesting the umpire’s decision.
The incident was reported to the ICC match referee Javagal Srinath and a hearing was set for after the match.
ICC match referee Srinath said in a release that it is clear that Dinesh applied an artificial substance to the ball, namely saliva containing the residue of something he had in his mouth, an action which is prohibited under the ICC Code of Conduct.
The game ended in a draw with the West Indies batting at 147 for five, looking for 296 runs to win the Test, which was badly interrupted by rain.
The final Test of the three-match series will be played in Barbados for the historic day–night Test. West Indies won the first Test in Trinidad.
