Lankan skipper Chandimal charged with ball-tampering

Agencies
June 17, 2018

Gros-Islet/Saint Lucia, Jun 17:  Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal was charged by the ICC on Sunday over ball-tampering 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 Friday's play.

The International Cricket Council announced on Twitter that Chandimal had been charged for "breaching Level 2.2.9 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 cheating.

It appeared for some time on Saturday that the day's 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 day's play underway two hours later than scheduled.

The 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 players.

"The 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 game."

Former Sri Lanka player Kumar Sangakkara told Sky Sports in the UK: "I think that they feel hard done-by.

"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 over-cautious.

"They 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 Town.

Steve Smith and David Warner were stripped of the captaincy and vice-captaincy 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 months.

The 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 game's history to be forfeited after Pakistan refused to return to the field.

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Agencies
February 7,2020

New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.

India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.

It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.

The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.

Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.

This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.

Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.

Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

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News Network
June 3,2020

Colorado, Jun 3: Formula One boss Chase Carey has said that races will go ahead even if a driver tests positive for coronavirus.

His remarks come as organisers revealed a revised 2020 calendar and the schedule for the first eight races was put in the public domain.

"An individual having been found with a positive infection will not lead to a cancellation of a race. We encourage teams to have procedures in place so if an individual has to be put in quarantine, we have the ability to quarantine them at a hotel and to replace that individual," the official website of Formula One quoted Carey as saying.

"Some things we'd have to talk through and work through. The array of 'what ifs' are too wide to play out every one of them, but a team not being able to race would not cancel the race. I do not think I could sit here and lay out the consequences," he said.

Carey added the organisers will be having the necessary procedures in place so that the race does not get cancelled if a driver ends up testing positive for coronavirus.

"But we will have a procedure in place that finding infection will not lead to a cancellation. If a driver has an infection, teams have reserve drivers available," Carey said.

"We would not be going forward if we were not highly confident we have necessary procedures and expertise and capabilities to provide a safe environment and manage whatever issues arrive," he added.

The Formula One 2020 season will be beginning with the Austrian Grand Prix in July.

F1 currently expects the opening races to be closed events but hopes that fans will be able to attend again when it is safe to do so.

The season will kick off with the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring on July 5, followed a week later by a second race on the same track.

The Hungarian Grand Prix will follow a week after that, before a break. There will be then two back to back races at Silverstone, followed by the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

The Belgian Grand Prix will follow that, with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza a week later on September 6.

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News Network
February 5,2020

Aukland, Feb 5: Striker Navneet Kaur scored a brace to guide the Indian women's hockey team to a convincing 3-0 win over New Zealand in the last game of its five-match tour here on Wednesday.

Navneet found the net in the 45th and 58th minutes, while Sharmila scored a field goal in the 54th minute as India drew curtains on the New Zealand tour on a bright note.

After a goalless opening two quarters, Navneet finally broke the deadlock for India in the 45th minute.

Sharmila then doubled the lead when she struck a powerful shot past the New Zealand goalkeeper in the 54th minute. Navneet found the net again just two minutes from the final hooter with a beautiful field strike.

India began the tour by thrashing New Zealand Development squad 4-0 before suffering close 1-2 and 0-1 defeats to the home senior team.

In penultimate game of the tour, skipper Rani's lone strike handed India a 1-0 win over Great Britain.

"...I am happy we produced three goals against New Zealand in the last match. This tour gave us a good insight about where we need to improve and one of the things is to create faster play than we do now," said India's chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne.

Commenting on his side's performance during the tour, Marijne said, "Sometimes we tend to keep the ball too long on the stick and then we create pressure. We need to avoid that by passing faster.

"On the defence side, we need to be a bit more calmer and need to improve our tackling. We will have a four week camp after a short break when we return home and we will be working on these points."

The Indian team will return home on February 7.

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