Mystery surrounds late night inspection by match referee

The fourth day for the second test match between South Africa and Sri Lanka started amidst controversy surrounding a late night inspection of this Kandy pitch by the match referee, Brian Hastings, and umpire, Darryl Harper.

Under the surveillance of the head of the Kandy police, the covers were withdrawn from the pitch, in an effort to discover whether it had been covered in an appropriate manner. The inspection took place at 10:30pm.

Goolam Raja, the South African manager, has this morning denied that the South African management had made an official complaint. He did though confirm that they had informally been concerned about the covering of the wicket during the test match and that the matter had been discussed by members of the team.

The match referee appears have acted unilaterally on the basis of general conversation and rumour, deciding he would like to make sure that everything was in order and thus prevent unfounded accusations later on.

If the pitch had been covered by additional sponges, then this could have drawn further moisture from an already parched surface. The significance of this relates to the sweating that occurs beneath the covers and the local belief that this binds the surface together, making the pitch more favourable to the batsmen in the first hour of the morning.

In the event, the inspection unearthed nothing untoward. The normal number of sponges were used and these sponges were of similar type. The issue appears to have arisen after three wet sponges were replaced by new ones of a different colour.

When the inspection first came to light it initially provoked much consternation amongst the Sri Lankan media and the ground officials. The implications of an official complaint being that the South Africans were questioning the integrity of the Sri Lankan ground officials.