Test cricket on the brink of another scandal after umpires order ball to be changed?

A statement is expected to be released in the next few hours of Saturday evening by the officials in charge of the second Test between West Indies and Sri Lanka in St Lucia.

This follows a dramatic day where Sri Lanka players refused to leave their dressing room after umpires Aleem Dar and Ian Gould ordered the ball to be changed overnight and five penalty runs awarded to the West Indies.

Nothing out of the ordinary looked to have happened as Sri Lanka walked out to the middle at the start of the day ready for play to resume at 10.50am local time on day three of the match. But after discussions with the umpires, team captain Dinesh Chandimal waved his players back to the dressing room, where they stayed for 40 minutes.

The West Indies finished day two of the Test 118-2, with play now underway after Chandimal and his players emerged from dressing room.

The incident shares a degree of similarity with Pakistan’s decision to forfeit their Test match at The Oval in 2006, after they were penalised five penalty runs by umpires Billy Doctrove and Darrell Hair over suspicions about the condition of the ball.

Pakistan later claimed they had signalled their intention for play to resume, but history was made in infamous fashion as the match was nullified on the fourth day of the Test.

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