Lahore Qalandars batter Fakhar Zaman has been charged with ball-tampering in Sunday’s Pakistan Super League (PSL) match against Karachi Kings.
The incident (as per video) happened in the final over, with Karachi needing 14 runs to win. Fakhar, Shaheen Afridi, and Haris Rauf were found involved in a brief discussion, during which Fakhar and Rauf passed the ball between them. The umpire then approached Rauf and asked to see the ball. Following consultations with the square-leg umpire, the officials awarded five penalty runs to Karachi and ordered the ball to be changed.
The penalty proved costly, as Karachi went on to chase down a target of 129 with three balls to spare, and Abbas Afridi hit a four and a six to seal a four-wicket victory. “Fakhar denied the charge leveled against him during a disciplinary hearing led by the match referee Roshan Mahanama,” the PCB said.
“Another hearing is set to take place within the next 48 hours, after which the match referee will share his verdict.”Afridi said they would look at video footage of the incident.“I don’t know about this, and we’ll see if it’s there in the camera and discuss it,” he said at the post-match presentation ceremony. Fakhar, 35, could face a ban of one or two matches if found guilty of ball tampering for a first offence in the PSL.
