The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has suspended Fakhar Zaman for 2 matches. On March 29, the Lahore Qalandars batter was caught tampering with the ball against the Karachi Kings in the sixth match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2026.
Fakhar Zaman banned after ball tampering incident
Qalandars captain Shaheen Shah Afridi handed the ball to Haris Rauf to deliver the last over of the match, with Kings needing 14 to win from 6 balls. At this point, Fakhar took the ball from Haris and tried to scuff it up while attempting to hide it in his palm.
On-field umpires Shahid Saikat and Faisal Khan Aafreedi, along with TV umpire Asif Yaqoob and fourth umpire Tariq Rasheed, caught hold of it. They changed the ball and handed 5 penalty runs to the Kings. It resulted in Qalandars losing by 4 wickets with 3 balls still left.
After the match, Fakhar denied any wrongdoing. This led to a disciplinary hearing conducted by match referee Roshan Mahanama with Shaheen, Qalandars team director Sameen Rana, and team manager Farooq Anwar present as well. However, things didn’t go as Fakhar or Qalandars would’ve expected.
“Fakhar Zaman has been suspended for two HBL PSL matches after he was found guilty of a Level 3 offence for breaching Article 2.14 of the applicable Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel during the Lahore Qalandars v Karachi Kings match on Sunday. Match Referee Roshan Mahanama conducted the disciplinary hearing and made the determination after reviewing all evidence,” PSL said in a media release.
The batter has been found guilty of a level 3 offence in the PSL code of conduct. He has been handed a 2-match ban and will miss Qalandars’ upcoming fixtures against Multan Sultans on April 3 in Lahore and Islamabad United on April 9 in Karachi. He has 48 hours to appeal the verdict.
