Ball-tampering accusation taints Barbados's win

Barbados's Carib Beer Cup win against Guyana this week was marred by the first five-run penalty for ball-tampering in West Indian first-class domestic cricket.

Barbados thrashed Guyana by ten wickets in the opening round of the competition, but on the third afternoon of the match, the umpires, Billy Doctrove and Vincent Bullen, reported to the match referee that the ball had changed condition. They immediately changed it and penalised Barbados five runs.

However, the matter isn't finished there. The West Indian board is still awaiting reports from both umpires and Hartley Reid, the match referee, before deciding if the matter should be investigated further.

The umpires were reported to have said there had been "a change in the surface of the ball inconsistent with normal wear and tear". But Derrick Nicholas, the board's cricket operations officer, insisted they needed to hear all the details before any action was taken. "Before any decision is made, we will first have to get full reports from the umpires, match referee and all involved," he said. "That hasn't happened as yet. We are only now getting all of the reports. It might not even be a matter for the WICB secretariat to do anything about."

No Barbadian players have been singled out, and Tony Howard, their team manager, claimed that neither umpire actually revealed how the condition of the ball had changed. "The umpires said that they noticed the condition of the ball was altered but they didn't say that the Barbados players had altered it," he told the Barbados Daily Nation newspaper. "If the players had [intentionally tampered], one would imagine that the umpires would have indicated to the match referee what had happened."

Howard insisted that Barbados, the defending champions, will not be affected by this incident, though. "Incidents are going to happen from time to time and we have to get on with the game and stay focused and let the people whose job it is to deal with other matters, deal with them."