Sri Lanka refuse to play after umpires suspect ball-tampering

Not even three months have passed since the infamous ball-tampering incident in Cape Town, when another untoward incident forced a stoppage of more than 90 minutes in the second Test between West Indies and Sri Lanka at St. Lucia.

Not even three months have passed since the infamous ball-tampering incident in Cape Town, when another untoward incident forced a stoppage of more than 90 minutes in the second Test between West Indies and Sri Lanka at St. Lucia.

West Indies were awarded five penalty runs after the Sri Lankan players refused to take the field for about 90 minutes to scheduled time.

Even as we write this, the play has not yet resumed in St. Lucia as the Sri Lankan players continued to show dissent.

The on-field umpires Aleem Dar and Ian Gould apparently had a problem of the condition of the ball and instructed that the ball be changed before the start of play. This did not go down well with the Sri Lankan cricketers, who refused to take the field.

The Sri Lankan players holed up inside the dressing room well after the scheduled start of play, forcing match referee Javagal Srinath to intervene. Both the umpires and the match referee were seen having animated discussions with Sri Lanka coach Chandika Hathurusingha.

The root cause of the problem goes back to the last session of Day 2, when the umpires suspected ball-tampering. Gould and Dar called up Sri Lanka fielder Dhananjaya de Silva, who was given the responsibility to shine the ball and even tested the shape of the ball using the rings.

West Indies are batting and have reached 118 for two in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings total of 253.