Gros-Islet, Saint Lucia: Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal denied tampering with the ball by using a sweet in his pocket before his team raced into a substantial 287-run lead on the fourth day of the second Test against the West Indies on Sunday.
Match officials charged Chandimal after television footage from the final session’s play on Friday appeared to show the captain taking sweets out from his left pocket and putting them in his mouth, before applying the artificial substance to the ball which the umpires viewed as an attempt to change its condition.
Chandimal will face a hearing at the end of the Test on Monday.
If found guilty, he could be suspended from the third and final Test of the series, beginning in Barbados on Saturday.
Despite being at the centre of the storm, the Sri Lankan skipper put aside that immense distraction in supporting the in-form Kusal Mendis in a fifth-wicket stand of 117 that helped lift the visitors from the depths of 48 for four to 334 for eight in their second innings and a lead of 287 by the close of play on Sunday.
Chandimal eventually fell for 39 in the afternoon session. — AFP
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