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Shades of Mike Scott.
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Pakistan forfeits test match; England awarded victory
Aug 21, 2006
England was declared the winner of a test match after an unprecedented ball-tampering stand-off between the umpires and the Pakistan team.
For the first time in the history of international test cricket, the match halfway through its fourth day and heading toward an exciting conclusion was declared forfeit and awarded to England, giving the home team a 3-0 series victory. The late night announcement by the International Cricket Council ended eight hours of high drama that began on a cloudy Sunday afternoon at The Oval when umpires Darrell Hair of Australia and Billy Doctrove of the West Indies awarded England five penalty runs because, they said, the ball had been tampered with by Pakistan. The Pakistan team stayed in the pavilion after the tea interval, in protest, when the umpires and England batsman returned to the pitch. Pakistan, therefore, was deemed to have forfeited the match.
"The umpires made their decision in accordance with Law 21.3 when the Pakistan side failed to emerge from the dressing rooms after the tea interval," the ICC said after a four-hour meeting at The Oval.
The fourth and final test match of the series was at a gripping stage when drama struck. Pakistan, 331 runs ahead after the first innings, was struggling to defeat England, which had reached 298 for four, just 33 runs short of avoiding an innings defeat. The ball was 56 overs old and Alastair Cook had just been trapped leg before wicket by an inswinging delivery from Umar Gul when Hair examined the ball with Doctrove, held a tense discussion with Pakistan captain Inzamam-Ul-Haq and signaled five penalty runs for England. A box of six replacement balls was brought out and the England batsmen were allowed to choose which ball had been used, the first time that extra sanction has been imposed. Normally the umpires select the ball. The reverse swing that Gul and other bowlers had been achieving stopped immediately with the replacement ball but play stopped soon after because of bad light and an early tea was taken.
Sunday may be the first time that a team's protest has led to forfeit, but it is not the first time a player or umpire has protested. In 1973, Arthur Fagg refused to take the field at Trent Bridge because of West Indies players' hostile reactions to his decision not to give England's Geoffrey Boycott out. The West Indies refused to take the field in 1980 in Dunedin, New Zealand, in protest at the umpiring of local Fred Goodall. In 1987, Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana refused to let the game continue until he received an apology from England captain Mike Gatting after the two had an on-field argument.
Pakistan has been at the center of several ball-tampering complaints over the past 15 years.
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Tampering with the ball?
After their tea break?
Yikes!
Later
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