Cricket: Pakistan forfeit fourth test after ball row [audio report]

The fourth cricket test between England and Pakistan has been sensationally abandoned and victory awarded to the hosts.

The match was awarded to England after Pakistan were deemed to forfeit the match when they stayed in their dressing room following a row over ball-tampering, the English Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement today.

Pakistan refused to return to the field after tea on day four at The Oval after Darrell Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove had earlier imposed a five-run penalty against them for ball-tampering and changed the ball.

When Pakistan did later take to the field, the umpires did not appear, leading to extensive negotiations that ended with the abandonment several hours later.

England win the four-test series 3-0.

Pakistan's players, on course for a face-saving win, had been stunned during the afternoon at The Oval when the umpires took action.

They continued playing until tea, with England on 298 for four in their second innings and still 33 runs shy of making Pakistan bat again, when the fiasco exploded.

Hair, who has been involved in several controversies with teams from the sub-continent in the past, and Doctrove walked out to the middle alone, then returned to the pavilion as Pakistan's players staged a protest by remaining in the dressing room.

The umpires walked out again 15 minutes later, this time followed by England batsmen Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell, but Pakistan again failed to show. Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal was clearly visible reading a newspaper without his pads on.

The situation took a new turn around 45 minutes after the scheduled restart when Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq led his side out, then straight back in as the umpires this time stayed away.

Pakistan Cricket Board head Shaharyar Khan said: "From our point of view the boys were extremely upset at the slur of what happened. They wanted to register a protest with the match officials. We were going to stay off for just a few minutes."

He said Pakistan's players categorically denied they had tampered with the ball. "No one was consulted, no one was told... they felt deeply aggrieved."

Khan added he did not know what would happen to the one-day series against England due to start after the tests.

Umpires have the right to award a match to the opposition if they deem a side had refused to continue playing.

Pakistan were aggrieved when the umpires ruled the ball had been tampered after Alastair Cook had been bowled by a reverse-swinging yorker from pace bowler Umar Gul.

Inzamam became embroiled in a heated exchange with the umpires before the England batsmen at the crease, Kevin Pietersen and Collingwood, were allowed to choose a replacement ball.

Hair first hit the headlines when he called Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing in Australia in 1995-6.

Sunday's scenes are not unprecedented. English umpire Arthur Fagg refused to take the field at Edgbaston in 1973 after the West Indies disputed one of his decisions.

- REUTERS