Cricket: The fourth Test between England and Pakistan descended into farce and acrimony last night when play failed to resume after the tea interval because of a breakdown in relations between the two umpires and the Pakistani team, whom they had penalised for tampering with the ball.
Last night the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), and the managements of the two teams were in discussions about whether the game would continue today or be abandoned. The one-day series that follows the last Test was also in doubt.
The controversy began at 2.30pm when umpires Darrell Hair, an Australian, and Billy Doctrove, from Dominica, inspected the ball at the end of the 57th over of England's second innings and decided that it had been interfered with by the Pakistanis. The rules state that a fielding team can polish the ball or apply saliva to it, but that no other agent must be used in its preparation.
A heated debate ensued with Pakistan's captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, before Hair signalled that five penalty runs were to be added to the England total because, in his view, Pakistan had contravened law 43, which governs the condition of the ball.
The England batsmen, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood, were allowed to choose a different ball from a box containing six alternatives that had been used for a similar number of overs as the ball to be replaced, and play continued for a further 15 overs until the players left the field for bad light.
Tea was taken early and a furious Pakistani team refused to take the field at 4.40pm, the scheduled resumption time, and instead decided to register a brief protest at the umpires's decision by staying in their dressing-room.
But just as the Pakistanis were emerging, the umpires removed the bails and left the field with the two England batsmen, Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell.
The Pakistani team later signalled their intention to carry on with the game, but this time, as a capacity fourth-day crowd of 23,000 registered their impatience, it was the umpires who chose not to take to the field.
The reason for the umpires' refusal to carry on with the game was not immediately obvious, but there was some speculation that they had felt Pakistan had already forfeited the Test by failing to reappear themselves. However, Shahryar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, said his side were ready to resume play, and expressed his disappointment at the way the situation had been handled.
"The boys are extremely upset at the slur of ball-tampering," he said. "As a result we wanted to register our protest with the match referee (Mike Procter). Once that was done we were ready to go out again, but it appears the umpires were unwilling to go out.
"The captain and his team feel deeply insulted by the accusation. They are absolutely 100 per cent convinced that they have done nothing wrong. We are very saddened that it has come to this and would like to point out that we are ready to resume the game."
At 6.15pm the game was called off for the evening. Sky television failed to uncover any evidence of ball-tampering after reviewing footage.
The furore was not helped by the fact relations between Hair and Pakistan had reached breaking-point after a series of recent incidents.