The West Indies batter Nicholas Pooran has been suspended for four matches and has been awarded five demerit points after he was caught on video while tape scratching the ball with the nail of his thumb finger.
Pooran was found guilty of violating Article 2.1.4 of the ICC Code of Conduct, with his offence being a Level 3 breach. The minimum penalty for Level 3 breach is five demerit points otherwise called as four suspension points.
Four Suspension Points = Two Test or Four limited-overs match-ban, whichever comes first.
Pooran now will miss the upcoming three T20I against Afghanistan and the first T20I against India.
Pooran accepted the offence and will serve the ban.
“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,” said Pooran.
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