ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Cricket West Indies president, Ricky Skerritt, says under-fire batsman Nicholas Pooran must use the ball tampering incident as a “learning experience.”
The 24-year-old Pooran was yesterday slapped with a four-match ban by the International Cricket Council after pleading guilty to “changing the condition of the ball” during West Indies’ five-wicket win in the third One-Day International on Monday in Lucknow.
Television footage showed Pooran using his thumbnail to “scratch the surface of the ball”, a charge he subsequently admitted to after being reported by on-field umpires, along with the third and fourth officials.
“Mr Pooran is a young player who has made a grave error of judgement,” Skerritt said in a statement yesterday.
“He will suffer the penalty and will be missed from the team as a result. I am confident that this situation will be used by Pooran, and all concerned in CWI, as a learning experience.”
The ban rules Pooran out of the three-match Twenty20 International series against Afghanistan, and the first T20I of the three-match series against India next month.
Further, the incident takes some of the shine off West Indies’ first one-day series win in five years and the subsequent whitewash.
The Caribbean side beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in the opening ODI last Thursday before clinching the series with a 47-run victory last Saturday.
