Pakistan batter Fakhar Zaman was already under close watch from the umpires even before they opted to change the ball and penalised Lahore Qalandars with five runs during a Pakistan Super League (PSL) match, sources revealed.
Zaman was later handed a two-match suspension after being found guilty of ball-tampering in the same fixture.
“The Karachi Kings management had brought to the notice of the fourth umpire and subsequently the match referee from the 13th over onwards that they suspected Fakhar was doing something to the ball,” PTI quoted a source as saying.
According to the source, the match referee had instructed the on-field umpires to monitor Zaman and the Lahore Qalandars team.
“Before the final over, umpire Faisal Afridi had already been watching closely. He asked for the ball and on inspecting it suspected it had been tampered with a foreign object. That is why the decision to change the ball and award penalty runs was given,” he stated.
After the ban, Zaman also appealed to the PSL’s technical committee to reverse the referee’s ruling. However, the committee rejected Zaman’s appeal, stating that the umpires and match referee had sufficient circumstantial evidence to take action against him.
Due to the ban, the Pakistani batsman was forced to skip Friday night’s match against the Multan Sultans in Lahore and is scheduled to miss another match on April 9.
