Bassarath: Pooran will learn from ball-tampering issue

WEST INDIES Nicholas Pooran has made a serious error in judgement and will certainly learn from his mistake.

This is the view of Azim Bassarath, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) in response to the four-match ban imposed by the ICC (International Cricket Council), the world governing body for cricket, after video footage showed him scratching the ball with his thumbnail.

The clear breach of Level 3 of the ICC Code of Conduct came in the first T20 match between West Indies and Afghanistan in Lucknow, India on Wednesday which the Caribbean cricketers won by 40 runs.

Bassarath said it was instructive that wicketkeeper/batsman Pooran admitted to the offence and pledged to not repeat it while accepting the punishment proposed by match referee Chris Board.

A top performer with the bat for the West Indies earlier this year at the ICC World Cup in England and Wales, the left-handed Pooran will miss the ongoing three-match T20 series against the Afghans, and the opening encounter of the series against India.

"Pooran is seen as one of the players of the future for the West Indies and we should not allow this isolated incident, though quite concerning, to define his entire career nor indeed impede the enormous transition he has made over the past year into a top-class cricketer," said Bassarath.

The TTCB chief said that at the end of the ban, he is confident Pooran will realise the gravity of the offence and become a better cricketer, more self-aware of the great responsibility that comes with being a representative of West Indies cricket.