LAHORE: Lahore Qalandars player Fakhar Zaman has been charged with a Level 3 offense under Article 2.14 of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel for allegedly breaching Article 41.3 of the Playing Conditions, which prohibits any act that alters the condition of the ball.
“Fakhar denied the charge against him during a disciplinary hearing presided over by match referee Roshan Mahanama,” the PCB said.
“A second hearing is set to take place within the next 48 hours, after which the match referee will deliver his verdict.”
The controversy unfolded shortly before the last over of Karachi Kings’ chase when the on-field umpires examined the ball and ruled that its condition had been altered. As a result, a five-run penalty was imposed on the fielding side, reducing Karachi’s target to nine runs instead of 14.
The incident came after Fakhar, Lahore captain Shaheen Shah Afridi and fast bowler Haris Rauf were involved in a brief argument during which Fakhar and Rauf passed the ball between them. The referee then turned to Rauf and asked to see the ball before, after consulting with the square umpire, he awarded the penalty and ordered the ball changed.
The penalty proved crucial as Abbas Afridi hit a four and a six to seal a four-wicket victory for Karachi with three balls to spare.
Shaheen said Lahore would review the footage of the incident. “I don’t know about this [ball tampering]and we discuss. Five run penalty…but we can’t say anything. We’ll see,” Shaheen said at the post-match presentation.
Reflecting on the overall performance, Shaheen maintained that his team’s batting effort was respectable and pointed to the fight of the opposition while chasing a modest target.
“It was a good match. We wanted to fight till the last ball and the team tried. In both teams’ batting it was the same. I feel our batting was fine otherwise KK would have chased this for 15 overs,” the left-arm pacer stressed.
Fakhar could be banned for one or two matches if he is found guilty of ball tampering for a first offense in the PSL.
Hasan Ali fined
In a separate disciplinary development from the same match, Karachi Kings fast bowler Hasan Ali was fined 10% of his match fee for a Level 1 breach of the PCB Code of Conduct for players and player support staff.
The pacer admitted the offense and accepted the sanction.
Hasan was found to have violated Article 2.5, which relates to “the use of language, actions or gestures that demean or may provoke an aggressive response from an aggressor by his or her rejection during a fight”.
The incident took place on the last ball of the 19th over of Lahore Qalandars’ innings when Hasan dismissed Haseebullah Khan.
Lahore were restricted to 128-9 in their 20 overs after electing to bat first. Abdullah Shafique top scored with 33 off 24 balls while Haseebullah Khan made 28 off 30 deliveries.
In reply, Muhammad Waseem led Karachi’s chase with 38 off 37 balls, while Saad Baig and Moeen Ali contributed 19 and 18 respectively.
