LAHORE, Pakistan: Lahore Qalandars cricketer Fakhar Zaman has been charged with alleged ball tampering ahead of the last over of a Pakistan Super League game against Karachi Kings on Sunday.
“Fakhar denied the charge leveled against him during a disciplinary hearing led by the match referee Roshan Mahanama,” the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement.
“Another hearing is set to take place within the next 48 hours after which the match referee will share his verdict.” If found guilty, the minimum punishment for a Level 3 offense is a one-match ban.
The controversy in the country’s premier domestic T20 tournament erupted when fast bowler Haris Rauf was due to bowl the final over with the Karachi Kings needing 14 more runs for victory.
Lahore captain Shaheen Shah Afridi, batter Zaman and Rauf were together at the bowler’s run-up with all three handling the ball at some stage during their discussions with each other, which are common in cricket at key stages of the match.
Umpire Faisal Afridi then called for the ball, inspected it and had a long discussion with second on-field umpire Sharfuddoula of Bangladesh.
Both umpires decided that the ball had been deliberately altered and awarded five penalty runs to Karachi, which now needed nine runs off the last six balls. The umpires also changed the ball.
Karachi batter Khushdil Shah holed out off the first ball of the last over but Rauf followed it with a wide before Abbas Afridi smashed a four and a six to earn a four-wicket win for Karachi in 19.3 overs.
