He breached Level 3 of the ICC's Code of Conduct by defying Article 2.14, as video footage showed him tampering with the ball using his thumbnail. Pooran accepted the charge sanctioned by match referee Chris Broad and thus, there was no need of a formal hearing. Both on-field umpires Bismillah Shinwari and Ahmed Durrani, third umpire Ahmed Pakteen and the fourth umpire Izatullah Safi levelled the charge on him in the match held at Lucknow.
Pooran apologised through a statement shared by Cricket West Indies. "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 we will ensure this is an isolated incident and it will not happen again. I promise to learn from this and come back stronger and wiser."
West Indies won the third ODI by five wickets in successful chase of 250 to complete a 3-0 sweep of Afghanistan. The series concludes on November 17 in Lucknow, with the first T20 scheduled for November 14. The tour concludes with a solitary Test on the same ground from November 27.
AFG vs WI 2019: Nicholas Pooran banned for ball-tampering
West Indies middle-order batsman Nicholas Pooran has been for four T20 internationals on being found guilty of tampering the ball during the recently concluded third ODI against Afghanistan. Pooran will thus miss the entire three-match T20 series against the same opponents, as well as the subsequent T20 against India, which is the first of another three-game series, while also receiving five demerit points added to his name.