There are two issues here and each one is totally seperate.

The first one - Tampering with the ball

The second - The refusal of a team to continue the game, when asked to.


Its very important people do not merge the two issues.

In relation to the rules related to the second issue, the umpires were perfectly correct in accordance with the rules of cricket. Pakistan refused to continue the game after tea. The umpires waited the statutory 2 minutes and then declared that the Pakistan team by not being ready to play have therefore forfeited the game.

The ball tampering has nothing to do with that decision.

Whatever or however the Pakistan team think about the original decison, they do not have the right to stage a protest and refuse to continue the game at the appropriate time. If you let that happen, you may as well throw away the rules and not bother with umpires.

I have no opinion concerning the ball tampering. That is for the Umpires to deal with. They obviously felt for some reason that the ball was tampered with. I am sure the investigation will come up with what happened.