Sri Lanka held up play for almost an hour having been penalised five penalty runs ahead of the third day of the second Test against the West Indies after umpires Aleem Dar and Ian Gould ruled that they had altered the condition of the ball.
The umpires decided to change the match ball, which was 44.3 overs old, ahead of the third day in St Lucia, prompting Sri Lanka’s players to stay in their dressing room.
After discussions between officials and the players, match referee Javagal Srinath upheld Gould and Dar’s decision, with the five penalty runs taking the Windies to 123 for two in response to the tourists’ 253 all out.
Sri Lanka eventually took to the field at 10:50 local time – 50 minutes after the scheduled start.
In the 2006 Test at The Oval against England, Pakistan were penalised five runs for ball tampering by umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove. Pakistan refused to return to the field after tea on the fourth day with the match eventually forfeited to England.
