The fourth day of the fourth test match between England and Pakistan at The Oval, London ended in high farce and high controversy after England was awarded victory after the umpires deemed that Pakistan had forfeit the match.

It is the first time in test cricket history that a Test has been decided by forfeit.

Pakistan refused to come out of their change room to resume play after the tea interval after they had been penalised five runs for ball tampering while bowling in the middle session of the day’s play.

The drama started at the end of the 56th over of England’s second innings when Australian umpire Darrell Hair and his Dominican counterpart Billy Doctrove decided that the ball had illegally been tampered with and called for a replacement in addition to tacking a five run penalty against the Pakistanis onto England’s score.

Things took a turn for the farcical after the tea interval when the visitors refused to take the field after the usual 20-minute break. It became quite clear after a couple of minutes that the Pakistanis were refusing to come out in protest against the penalty-- the accusation of ball tampering in cricket is akin to cheating, no small implication in the gentleman's game.

Fifteen minutes after the scheduled resumption of play, English batsmen Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell, who had been waiting for Pakistan to take the field, joined the two umpires out in the middle. Five minutes later, with Pakistan still refusing to take the field and team management in discussion with International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Mike Proctor, Hair removed the bails from the stumps, signalling that the match had been declared over and that the match had been forfeited by Pakistan under Law 21 of the rules of cricket that state

(a) A match shall be lost by a side which either
(i) concedes defeat
or (ii) in the opinion of the umpires refuses to play
and the umpires shall award the match to the other side.

(b)If an umpire considers that an action by any player or players might constitute a refusal by either side to play then the umpires together shall ascertain the cause of the action. If they then decide together that this action does constitute a refusal to play by one side, they shall so inform the captain of that side. If the captain persists in the action the umpires shall award the match in accordance with (a)(ii) above.

Even with the match having been declared over by the umpires the drama did not end there. Thirty minutes after the umpires had initially left the field Pakistan decided they were willing to resume the game and took the field once more to a howling chorus of boos and jeers from the angry and confused crowd, only to leave the field again two minutes later when umpires Hair and Doctrove themselves refused to come out as they had already declared the match over.

After hours of meetings between officials from the ICC, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) resulted in a joint statement from later that night reading:

"After lengthy negotiations which resulted in agreement between the teams, the ICC match referee and both ECB and PCB to seek to resume the fourth npower Test match on Monday, it was concluded with regret that there will be no play on the fifth day. The fourth npower Test match between England and Pakistan has therefore been forfeited with the match being awarded to England."

In accordance with the laws of cricket it was noted that the umpires had correctly deemed that Pakistan had forfeited the match and awarded the Test to England. At a meeting between the captains, ECB, PCB and match referee, the players, ICC match referee and boards indicated that they would offer to resume play if at all possible on day five.

Nonetheless, having awarded the match to England and having consulted with the Pakistan captain, the umpires reconfirmed their decision to award the match to England.

The Pakistan team was aggrieved by the award of five penalty runs to England. The award of those penalty runs for alleged interference with the ball is under review by the ICC match referee Mike Procter, whose report will be considered in due course. ICC will be issuing a separate report concerning action which may be taken in relation to the forfeiture of the match by Pakistan.

The ICC followed later with their own statement supporting the actions of the umpires and their decision to forfeit Pakistan:

"Following these meetings the umpires decided that, having made the decision to award the match to England, to change that decision would not be in keeping with the Laws of Cricket. The ICC backs the decision of the umpires. The issue of a charge or charges to be laid against Pakistan under the ICC's Code of Conduct will now be dealt with at the earliest possible opportunity."

Pakistan has been charged under Level two of the Code of Conduct, 2.10, which relates to changing the condition of the match ball.

With this match being decided in England’s favour, the home side won the four match series 3-0.