Lahore Qalandars batsman Fakhar Zaman has been charged with ball-tampering in Sunday’s Pakistan Super League (PSL) fixture against Karachi Kings, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a statement.
The incident happened in the final over, when Karachi required 14 runs to win. Fakhar was engaged in a short conversation with Lahore captain Shaheen Afridi and fast bowler Haris Rauf where he and Rauf threw the ball between them.
The umpire then came to Rauf and requested the ball. After consultations with the square-leg umpire, the —m officials gave five penalty runs to Karachi and ordered a change of the ball.
That penalty turned out very costly, as Karachi chased down the target of 129 with three balls to spare, courtesy a four and a six by Abbas Afridi that helped them complete a four wicket win.
“The charge was levelled against Fakhar during a disciplinary hearing conducted by the match referee Roshan Mahanama, where he denied the offence,” said the PCB.
“Another hearing will be held in the next 48 hours after which the match referee’s verdict will be made public.”
Afridi said that they would review video of the incident.
“I don’t know about this, and we’ll see if it’s there in the camera and speak,” he said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
Fakhar, 35, could incur a ban of one to two matches if found guilty of a first offence of ball tampering in the PSL.
Cricket Australia broke up the Australian trio of David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft with lengthy bans for ball-tampering during a third Test against South Africa in 2018.