Colombo: Sri Lanka’s debutant wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella was on Sunday fined 10 per cent of his match fee for claiming an unfair catch on day three of the ongoing second Test against South Africa.
The 21-year-old player was found guilty of conduct that is either “contrary to the spirit of the game” or “brings the game into disrepute”, the International Cricket Council said in a news release.
“Dickwella admitted to the charge and accepted the sanction imposed by Jeff Crowe ... without the need to convene a disciplinary hearing,” the ICC said.
The player was also reprimanded officially.
The incident had occurred in the seventh over of the third day, when South African batsman AB de Villiers gloved a ball from Suranga Lakmal down the leg side.
Dickwella collected the deflection on the bounce and appealed immediately, while the batsman stood his ground. The decision was then referred to third umpire Billy Bowden. TV replays showed the ball had bounced inches short of Dickwella’s gloves.
Dickwella had been flown in from England, where he had been with the Sri Lanka A team, to take part in the match.
He scored 72 and 16 on debut, besides taking a catch and a pulling off a stumping in South Africa’s first innings.
