England spinner, Graeme Swann admitted that he “wanted to kill” Sri Lankan batsman Dilruwan Perera, when he refused to walk, after being caught at slips, off the bowling of James Anderson.
The incident occurred in England’s convincing innings and 15 runs victory against the Sri Lanka Board XI.
Swann accused Perera of cheating, and stated that he didn’t walk, even though he knew he was out.
Speaking to The Sun, Swann was quoted as saying: “He was stood right next to me with a smug look on his face…it was very difficult to take, as it was so blatantly out. What annoyed us was the batsman stood there, knowing 100 per cent he was out. He chose to cheat in my view.”
Swann added that he was happy of living in a time where technology was available to use in the sport, and claimed that if it was in use during the warm up match, there would have been no doubt that Perera was out.
He also said that he was a big fan of the DRS system, due to its ability to shed light on close decisions. “That’s one of the reasons I’m such a fan of the DRS – batsmen for years have been saying they are not out and it’s proved they actually are. If you know you are out, then you walk off the field” he said.
However, Swann, also appreciated the acts of his Captain, Andrew Strauss, who tried to diffuse to situation, in order to stop it from becoming any worse.
“I’m glad Straussy was there, because I’m sure it would have gone further had we not had someone with a bit of onus to calm things down” Swann said.
England will play one final pre-test match warm-up against Sri Lanka Development XI in Colombo on Wednesday, before meeting Sri Lanka on the 26th of March for the start of the first test.