Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal has been suspended for a Test after being found guilty of tampering with the ball.
In an action replay of the Faf du Plessis incident in the second Test against Australia, in Hobart in 2016, Chandimal was charged after umpires reviewed footage that appeared to show he took sweets from his pocket, put them in his mouth, then used saliva to shine the ball in the second Test against the West Indies.
He will miss Sri Lanka’s third and final Test against the West Indies and has also been fined 100 per cent of his match fee.
The Sri Lanka captain is the first to be suspended for this type of offence: Du Plessis was merely fined 100 per cent of his match fee.
Match referee Javagal Srinath said in a statement: ‘After reviewing the footage of the incident, 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.
‘Dinesh admitted to putting something in his mouth but couldn’t remember what it was, which I found unconvincing as a defence and the fact remains it was an artificial substance.’
When the umpires became suspicious of what was happening, they changed the ball and awarded the West Indies five penalty runs before the start of play on day three of the Gros Islet Test, prompting protests from the Sri Lankan camp that delayed the start of the day.
The Sri Lankans eventually took the field, claiming it was ‘under protest’, and Chandimal was charged by the umpires at the end of the day.
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