Ramdin charged for claiming Misbah catch

West Indies wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin has been charged with breaching the ICC Code of Conduct for claiming a catch off Misbah-ul-Haq during the Champions Trophy match against Pakistan at The Oval. Ramdin has pleaded not guilty and will attend a hearing on Monday.

Ramdin was charged with breaching article 2.2.11 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to "conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game". The range of penalties for all first Level 2 breaches are fines of between 50-100% of a player's match fees and/or suspension for up to two ODIs.

The incident took place in the ninth over of the Pakistan innings, when Misbah bottom-edged a Kemar Roach delivery to Ramdin. The wicketkeeper initially appeared to have caught the ball but lost control of it as he fell forward, and it slipped out of his gloves on to the grass. Instead of bringing his mistake to the notice of the umpires or his team-mates, Ramdin returned the ball to the square-leg umpire and joined his team-mates in the celebratory huddle.

Square-leg umpire Nigel Llong, however, alerted the third umpire and the replay revealed the chance had been dropped. Misbah, who was on 0, was called back and went on to hit an unbeaten 96.

Misbah later said Ramdin's actions were not in the spirit of the game. "What can I say about that?" he said when asked about the catch. "I think he should have told them what happened, but I don't know what he was thinking at that time. I would not be very happy if my wicketkeeper did that.

"If we don't know anything, then it's fine, but if you know clearly that it's not a catch, you should not claim that because it's not in the spirit of the game."

West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo, however, defended Ramdin, saying the wicketkeeper did not act deliberately. "Unfortunately, he did not catch it," Bravo said. "He's a very honest player, and as I said, history shows if you check the records that we don't have any stigma or negatives around us as a team. We have been true in our cricket careers and history has shown that we play the game in true spirit of the way it should be played. I don't think we did something like this deliberately."

In June 2012, Ramdin was fined 20% of his match fee for a protest directed at Viv Richards during the third Test against England at Edgbaston. Ramdin was charged with conduct contrary to the spirit of the game and pleaded guilty to the offence.