Afridi bites ball in bizarre twist-ball tempering

Pakistan’s stand-in captain captain Shahid Afridi bit the ball and ran his teeth along the seam in an extraordinary finale to Australia’s action-packed two-wicket victory at the WACA on Sunday night and was later banned for two Twenty20 Internationals after being found guilty of ball-tampering.

With the match hanging in the balance, Afridi’s brain snap was caught by TV cameras and was sanctioned by the ICC match referee Ranjun Madugalle for one of the more bizarre incidents to have been witnessed in international cricket.

Ball-tampering normally results from fingernails being run down the seam but Afridi, for reasons only he could explain, seemed intent on putting the entire ball in his mouth.

Afridi has already been in strife for ball tampering, suspended for one Test and two one-dayers in 2005.

“We’ve seen a few replays of it — I don’t know what to say,” Ponting said of Afridi’s incident. “I’ve never seen that before. I’m sure that will be dealt with. I really don’t know what to say about it.”

Afridi, leading Pakistan for the second time in an ODI, in the absence of Mohammad Yousuf, was caught on TV cameras apparently biting the ball on a couple of occasions. The incident was reported to the on-field umpires by the TV umpire and after a chat with Afridi, the umpires changed the ball immediately.

The allrounder is banned for two T20 games for ball-tampering
Afridi was called into a hearing with the Madugalle immediately after the match.

The punishment puts Pakistan into a quandary because Afridi is their Twenty20 captain and they end their tour of Australia with a Twenty20 in Melbourne on February 5. Yousuf, who captained Pakistan in Tests and ODIs, is not part of the Twenty20 squad and Younis Khan, who was captain before the tour of New Zealand which preceded this one, has retired from the format. Shoaib Malik, who was captain in all three formats this time last year, might be one of those in the running. Afridi will also now miss the first Twenty20 against England in Abu Dhabi in February.

“It’s unacceptable,” Intikhab Alam, the Pakistan coach, said. “It shouldn’t have happened but it happened and I feel sorry for him. Being a captain you should be above everything but unfortunately it’s happened.”