West Indies' Nicholas Pooran faces four-match suspension for ball tampering

West Indies' Nicholas Pooran on Wednesday was slapped with a four-match suspension by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching level 3 of its Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel.

"Pooran was charged with violating Article 2.14 of the code, which relates to "changing the condition of the ball" after video footage showed him scratching the surface of the ball with his thumbnail. He will now miss the next four T20I games for the West Indies and will have five demerit points added to his record," ICC said in a statement.

The incident took place during the third ODI against Afghanistan played on Monday. West Indies won the match by five wickets and by doing so, they white-washed Afghanistan in the three-match series.

After the suspension, Pooran issued a 'sincere apology' to his teammates, supporters and the Afghanistan team.

"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," he said.

No formal hearing was conducted as Pooran admitted the offence on Tuesday and accepted the sanction proposed by Chris Broad of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees.

The charge was levelled by on-field umpires Bismillah Shinwari and Ahmed Durrani and third umpire Ahmed Pakteen as well as fourth umpire Izatullah Safi.