The 24-year-old Windies cricketer Nicholas Pooran has received four suspension points for changing the ball condition during the third ODI against Afghanistan at Lucknow on last Monday (11th November). Due to this reason, he will now miss four international matches.
It was the third and final ODI of the three-match ODI series between Afghanistan and Windies. While Afghanistan were batting in the first innings, once Nicholas Pooran scratched the surface of the ball with his thumbnail. On-field video camera clearly captured that video.
In the reaction of that incident, the international cricket body has charged Nicholas Pooran with violating Article 2.14 of the code that relates to “changing the condition of the ball”. The 24-year-old breached the level 3 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel.
The umpires of that match put that serious charge on Pooran. The umpires were – on-field umpires Bismillah Shinwari and Ahmed Durrani, third umpire Ahmed Pakteen and fourth umpire Izatullah Safi.
Nicholas Pooran will miss four T20Is
On this report, Nicholas Pooran has been handed four suspension points which is equal to five demerit points. Match referee Chris Broad proposed the sanction on Pooran.
As a result of this sanction, the alleged player faces a ban of two Test matches or four limited-overs matches. So, Pooran will now miss four T20Is.
Windies are set to play the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan, starting from this Thursday (14th November). Pooran will miss all the matches of this series. Later, Windies will play one-off Test against Afghanistan where Pooran is not in the Windies squad.
From 6th December, Windies will play the three-match T20I series against the hosts India. Pooran will miss the first T20I of this series too due to his running suspension period. He will be available for the national team selection from the second game of this T20I series against the hosts India.
On Tuesday (12th November), Nicholas Pooran admitted the offence and also accepted the proposed sanction. So, there is no need for a formal hearing.
Nicholas Pooran has apologised to everyone for that action. He also added that he wouldn’t repeat it in future.
Pooran said according to the icc-cricket.com, “I want to issue a sincere apology to my teammates, supporters and the Afghanistan team for what transpired on the field of play on Monday in Lucknow. I recognise that I made an extreme error in judgement and I fully accept the ICC penalty. I want to assure everyone that this is an isolated incident and it will not be repeated. I promise to learn from this and come back stronger and wiser.”
Windies won that match by five wickets and also won that series by 3-0. Pooran scored 21 runs in the second innings of that match. Earlier, in that ODI series, Windies won by seven wickets and 47 runs respectively. While Pooran scored eight runs in the opening game of that series, he scored 67 runs in the second ODI.
Nicholas Pooran made his T20I debut in September 2016. In last February, Pooran made his ODI debut. He has already played 16 ODIs and 14 T20Is where he has scored 535 runs (average 44.58) and 274 runs (average 22.83) respectively.