Captains to challenge match officials on ball tampering ahead of Tests

Two captains who have been caught and punished for ball tampering South Africa’s Faf du Plessis and Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal were of the opinion that they should get clarity on what sweets are allowed and what is not on the field of play when the two-Test series commences at Galle on July 12.

“It is important to say that I am not clear yet on that matter. My opinion on it is a lot straighter. They (the ICC) still haven’t said what is allowed and what is not allowed,” said du Plessis at the press conference held at the Movenpick hotel yesterday where the two teams are staying.

Du Plessis was found guilty of tampering with the ball using mints to alter its condition and fined 100 percent of his match fee in the day-night Test against Australia at Adelaide last year.

Chandimal was fined 100 percent and banned for one Test for a similar offence using sweets taken from his pocket to alter the condition of the ball in the second Test against West Indies at St Lucia’s last month.

“Is chewing gum allowed or not? You can have mints in the mouth. Hashim Amla has said that he likes sweets in his mouth if you going to be a long time on the field. There is nothing wrong with it. For me I need clarity so I am looking forward to speaking to the umpires before the game to make sure we can get more clarity on the matter. I am sure Dinesh would want it as well,” said du Plessis.

“Before start of the match we want to have a chat with the umpires and get a clarification on what sweets we can carry in our pockets onto the field. We hope to get a clarification on it from the ICC match officials at the captains meeting,” he said.

Speaking further Du Plessis said: “Ball tampering is a serious offence. If you put something in your mouth and you shine the ball it’s not that serious. That’s my opinion. But if someone has the opportunity to try and do something with the ball the penalties that are there is going to make him think twice because you are going to miss a lot of cricket if you do that. As you have seen during the series against Australia things like that with the harsher penalties will be less in the game.”

Du Plessis agreed that there are inconsistencies with regard to ball tampering during bilateral series with emphasis being laid on exposing the visiting sides mistakes than the home country by television producers. “As a captain of any team you want consistency.”

CHANDIMAL IN BETTER FRAME OF MIND

Sri Lanka captain Chandimal who will know his fate whether he will be leading the side against South Africa after the second inquiry (for refusing to take the field) two days before the start of the first Test said that the incidents had not affected his preparations for the series.

“After that incident I appealed but I have to respect the ICC decision. It is tough as a human but I am now in a better frame of mind and I know what happened at that time,” said Chandimal.

“You face these kinds of challenges in cricket it is how you face them as a cricketer is the key. The team is in a good mental frame of mind having won the third Test against West Indies on difficult pitches. The players are confident of carrying that success into the South African series,” he said.

After returning from the West Indies the Lankan cricketers held their first practice session yesterday.

Batting coach Thilan Samaraweera was confident that with the Kookaburra balls that will be used for the series the Lankan batsmen will be able to face upto the South African fast bowlers.

“In the West Indies we got different conditions. I have toured West Indies twice and this time it was the hardest pitches we came across, in some areas of the pitches were bare patches and some areas had more grass it was more up and down,” said Samaraweera.

HANDLING REVERSE SWING

“The West indies series is totally different because of the Duke ball. We all know how the hard Duke balls behave. This is different conditions and we are using Kookaburra balls.

I think we can handle the South African bowlers. We have to give respect to the South African bowling side especially (Kagiso) Rabada, he is the most skilful bowler at the moment in the world for me. It’s a tough challenge we have to handle the reverse swing well in the series. If we do that this series will be exciting,” he said.

South Africa will be looking to have their premier fast bowler Dale Steyn up and running ahead of the Test series.

“He is back in the squad and looks good in the nets. It’s a case of getting his fitness back to where it needs to be in Test cricket. If we feel that he is ready to do that then he will play. Steyn has probably got the highest strike rate in the subcontinent amongst all the seam bowlers in the world,” said Du Plessis.

South Africa are confident that with their four-prong pace attack of Steyn, Rabada, Philander and Ngidi they can roll over Sri Lanka. “It is the skill sets that they represent. We got pace obviously and the ball in these conditions tend to reverse so when you have pace on your side generally the guys can take wickets. We also must understand the pitches; that’s why we have brought three spinners. We want to try and make sure that we have all areas covered.”

South Africa open their tour of Sri Lanka today with a two-day warm-up match against a Board XI at the P Sara Oval.

In the meantime Sri Lanka have brought in left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara as cover for the injured Rangana Herath who is expected to undergo a fitness test on the split webbing of his right hand he suffered during practice in the Caribbean that led to him missing the third Test.