Sports
Roneil Walcott
Trinidad and Tobago Red Force coach Rayad Emrit said Guyana Harpy Eagles’ title win in the 2025 West Indies Four-Day Championship can be tainted after two Guyanese players were fined for ball-tampering offences in their final round match against TT at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair.
The game ended in a draw on April 12, with Guyana clinching their eighth title in ten years as they finished on 126.6 points. Chasing their first four-day title since the 2005/06 season, TT slipped to third as they ended on 111 points, with Barbados Pride pipping them to second spot after a dramatic turnaround against Leewards Islands Hurricanes.
Speaking to Newsday after the pivotal clash with Guyana, Emrit said it was a disappointing way to end the campaign.
“I think it does (put a stain on their title win). You could say that they probably did it throughout the entire tournament and that’s why they were in this position,” Emrit said.
“They were on top of the game for most of it and we know cricket is a gentleman’s game. You don’t want to have these things creeping in,” Emrit said.
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“You saw what happened to Australia (with sandpaper gate). Cricket West Indies (CWI) can probably put bigger sanctions into these sorts of things.”
On April 12, a CWI release said veteran spinner Veerasammy Permaul, middle-order batsman Kevlon Anderson and allrounder Ronaldo Alimohamed were found guilty of breaching the CWI’s Code of Conduct during the seventh and final round of the West Indies Championship. Anderson and Permaul were penalised for tampering actions, while Alimohammed was punished for unsportmanlike conduct.
The CWI release said Permaul was fined 75 per cent of his match fee for a Level 2 breach during the first day of the match on April 9. He breached Article 2.1–2.5; Paragraph 3.8 of the CWI Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which speaks to “changing the condition of the ball in breach of Law 42.3. of the Laws of Cricket.”
The charge was laid by on-field umpires Christopher Taylor and Kashif Sandy after the end of the first day. Permaul admitted to the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Michael Ragoonath, and as such, there was no need for a formal hearing.
Meanwhile, Anderson was fined 90 per cent of his match fee for a similar offence during Red Force’s second innings on day three. He accepted the sanction proposed by the match referee, and as such, there was no need for a formal hearing.
All Level 2 breaches carry a minimum penalty of a fine of between 50–100 per cent of the applicable match fee and/or a ban of one match and/or two one-day matches.
In each instance the ball was changed, with the batting team given the option to choose.
In 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) approved harsher punishments for ball-tampering after Australia were found guilty of tampering offences in a Test match against South Africa in March 2018. Cricket Australia banned captain Steve Smith and David Warner for a year each, while Cameron Bancroft got a nine-month ban for his role in the incident, which saw the Aussies trying to alter the ball’s condition with a foreign object.
The amended ICC penalties meant players could be banned for up to six Tests for tampering offences and up to 12 One-Day Internationals. Tampering was also upgraded from a Level 2 to a Level 3 offence.
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“For a team to be playing fair and another team playing unfair, it really dampens the spirit of the game,” Emrit said. “And a very high-profile game like this, especially for a championship, it was a bit depressing for the team and myself as well.”
Guyana captain Tevin Imlach said his team hangs their hat on playing hard cricket. However, he doesn’t want the Harpy Eagles to be branded as cheats. Imlach also suggested that there was insufficient evidence to bring the charges against his players.
“(It does put a bit of a taint on the title). It’s something you don’t want to be known for. You don’t want to play cricket that way where you’re being accused of stuff like that,” Imlach said.
“To use that is going to paint the Guyana team as cheaters or we’re doing something wrong, it’s obviously not a good look. It’s not something you want as a team. It is what it is at this point and we’ll just look to move forward as a team.”
When asked what was used to alter the state of the ball, Imlach said, “Nothing was used. (The umpires) just said they saw some foreign substance on the ball. Guys are using sunscreen and stuff like that and if they sweat it’s going to run down. I don’t know if that’s what happened. I didn’t get to touch the ball on the first occasion. They just said they saw something and I wasn’t allowed to touch the ball.
“The second time around, there was absolutely nothing (on the ball). When I did touch the ball, I didn’t feel anything. It just came down to the umpires making a decision with no real evidence to support anything. It doesn’t look good, but it’s out of our control now.”
Imlach, who scored over 500 runs in the campaign, said the most pleasing thing was to see the growth of his players and their ability to adapt in varying circumstances during the season. It was Guyana’s third straight regional four-day crown.
