ICC likely to impose heavier sanction for ball-tampering
Sri Lanka Test skipper Dinesh Chandimal has become the second player in the last three months to have been charged for breaching the ICC code of conduct by tampering with the ball.
Chandimal, if found guilty, will escape a bigger sanction as the newly-modified punishment for the same offence is yet to be approved by the global governing body of the game.
According to the revised rule, recommended by the influential committee of the ICC, ball-tampering is likely to be upgraded from a Level 2 offence to Level 3.
Currently, tampering with the condition of the ball is a Level 2 offence, which results in fine of 50 percent to 100 percent of match fee and/or ban for one Test or two ODIs alongside four demerit points. On the other hand, under a Level 3 offence a player could receive up to six demerit points along with a ban for two to four Tests or four to eight ODIs .
ICC chief executive Dave Richardson has confirmed that the cricket committee is considering moving the sanctions to Level 3 while also introducing a more severe sanctions.
“We are considering bumping it up to Level 3 and even considering the range of penalty slightly higher as well,” said Richardson.
Australia batsmen, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, had been hit with ICC sanctions back in March this year for their role in the ball-tampering incident in a Test against South Africa in Johannesburg. Bancroft was charged with ball-tampering while Smith was charrged with "conduct contrary to the spirit of the game".
Smith had was fined 100 percent of his match fee and given a one-Test ban and had four demerit points on his record. Bancroft, on the other hand, was fined 75 percent of his match fee and received three demerit points. He was later slapped with a nine-month ban by Cricket Australia while Smith was handed a year-long ban.
