Sri Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal charged over ball-tampering

Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal was charged by the ICC on Sunday over balltampering in the second Test against the West Indies in St Lucia Play started two hours late on Saturday after the Sri Lankans led by Chandimal 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 Fridays playThe International Cricket Council announced on Twitter that Chandimal had been charged for breaching Level 229 of the ICC Code of Conduct The rule cited deals with altering the state of the ball Sri Lanka had already been handed five penalty runs on Saturday although that relatively minor punishment was inconsequential compared to the Sri Lankans obvious anger at being accused of what amounts to cheatingIt appeared for some time on Saturday that the days play at least and possibly the rest of the match might be in doubt However it was after these deliberations that the Sri Lankans agreed to the change of ball and to continue playing But after initially appearing to be prepared to resume the match the Sri Lankans hesitated even as they were making their way out to the middle resulting in further discussions before they were finally persuaded to get the days play underway two hours later than scheduledThe ICC warned at the time that they might take punitive action If there are any Code of Conduct charges will follow as per usual at close of play tweeted the ICC In a statement on Saturday Sri Lanka Cricket SLC solidly backed their playersThe team management has informed us that Sri Lankan players have not engaged in any wrongdoing said SLC in a statement but added SLC advised the team to take the field to ensure the continuity of the match and wish to commend the decision taken by the team under protest to ensure the upholding of the spirit of the gameFormer Sri Lanka player Kumar Sangakkara told Sky Sports in the UK I think that they feel hard doneby I think that everyone is a bit jumpy and walking on eggshells especially after what happened in South Africa So maybe Gould was just being overcautiousThey say something maybe that meant the ball needed to be changed maybe it was the shape The Sri Lankans would have taken offence at that and would have made their case In March this year Australia were caught tampering with the ball in the third Test against South Africa in Cape TownSteve Smith and David Warner were stripped of the captaincy and vicecaptaincy respectively and banned from playing international cricket for 12 months Opening batsman Cameron Bancroft the player caught on camera applying sandpaper to the ball was banned for nine monthsThe controversy also rekindled memories of 2006 when Pakistan were penalised five runs for ball tampering in the fourth Test against England at The Oval That match was the only Test in the games history to be forfeited after Pakistan refused to return to the fieldWhen play eventually resumed on Saturday Sri Lanka fought well to limit the West Indies firstinnings lead to 47 runs as the hosts who started the day at 118 for two lost their last six wickets for 59 runs to be dismissed in the final session for 300Also Read Sri Lanka Take To Field Two Hours Late After BallTampering RowCatch up on all the latest T20 news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever