Pakistan’s players, on course for a face-saving win in the four-match series, had been stunned during the afternoon at The Oval when Darrell Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove imposed a five-run penalty for ball tampering and changed the ball.

Play continued 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 for further discussions as Pakistan’s players remained in the dressing rooms.

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 bails were then removed and the covers brought on as the crowd began to boo and jeer.

Top officials from the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Pakistan Cricket Board then met to discuss the situation.

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

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

Earlier England, with an unassailable 2-0 series lead but battling to avoid an innings defeat in the final game, were earlier given an extra five runs after the umpires ruled that the ball had been tampered with by Pakistan during the afternoon session. Batsman Alastair Cook had been bowled by a reverse-swinging yorker from pace bowler Umar Gul shortly before.

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. Play had then continued without further incident until tea.

Hair first hit the headlines when he called Sri Lanka Muttiah Muralitharan in Australia in 1995-6. Pakistan are believed to have been unhappy with his umpiring earlier in the series against England.

This was the first time such a five-run penalty for ball-tampering had been imposed in Test cricket, an International Cricket Council (ICC) spokesman said.

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, the former England all-rounder, said at tea after seeing match referee Mike Procter: “I went to see him but I was told Procter wanted to discuss the incident with Hair first.”

Former Pakistan captain and board chief executive Rameez Raja, commentating for Sky Television, added: “The decision to award penalty runs came as a huge surprise because no player was warned and it looks a very subjective decision.

“With so many cameras covering this Test match, nobody was caught and there seems to be no evidence. 

“I think the Pakistan Cricket Board should tackle this aggressively because this could spoil a very good series.”

Cricket’s Law 42.3 states that in “the event of any fielder changing the condition of the ball unfairly .. the umpires shall award five penalty runs to the batting side.”

The Law explains that it is “unfair for anyone to run the ball on the ground for any reason, interfere with any of the seams on the surface of the ball, use any implement, or take any other action whatsoever which is likely to alter the condition of the ball.”

Playing regulation 42.1.2 (b) for this series also says that the batsmen can choose a replacement ball from a selection of six in the event the match ball has been tampered with.

Television pictures showed the ball was scuffed around the seam but there did not appear to have been any obvious sign of tampering by a member of the Pakistan fielding side.

If found guilty of ball-tampering players can be fined 50 per cent of their match fee and be banned from international cricket.

Pakistan’s 1992 tour of England was blighted by allegations of ball-tampering with pace great Waqar Younis, now Pakistan’s bowling coach, coming under intense scrutiny.

And in 2000 Waqar himself received a one-match ban for ball tampering following a one-day international against South Africa in Sri Lanka while Azhar Mahmood was fined for “abetting” the infringment in the same match.

Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, ruled out of the current series with England because of an ankle injury, received a reprimand in November 2002 for the same offence after a Test match against Zimbabwe in Harare.

And the following year, in May, Shoaib was given a two-match ban for ball tampering after a one-day international against New Zealand in Dambulla.

But high-profile players from other countries have been banned for similar offences with India batting great Sachin Tendulkar receiving a one-game ban in November 2001 after a Test match against South Africa in Port Elizabeth.

Tendulkar’s fellow India batsman Rahul Dravid was fined 50 per cent of his match fee, after being found guilty of ball tampering during India’s 24-run victory over Zimbabwe at Brisbane. Dravid was caught by the TV cameras rubbing a cough lozenge on the ball.

Then England captain Mike Atherton also caused controversy back in 1994 when he was spotted rubbing dirt from his pocket into the ball during a Test match against South Africa at Lord’s.

However, the prompt intervention of then England chairman of selectors Raymond Illingworth, who fined Atherton, spared the opening batsman official punishment for the incident.