Dwayne Bravo describes Nicholas Pooran ball-tampering incident as "silly mistake"

The 24-year-old was seen scratching the ball with his thumbnail, with Pooran's actions breaching article 2.14 of the players' code of conduct

Dwayne Bravo has defended Nicholas Pooran’s character after the West Indies batsman was charged with ball-tampering during his country’s third ODI win against Afghanistan.

The allrounder described Pooran’s actions as “a silly mistake” ahead of the beginning of the T10 League taking place in Abu Dhabi.

The 24-year-old was seen scratching the ball with his thumbnail, with Pooran's actions breaching article 2.14 of the players' code of conduct.

He admitted the charge labelled against him by on-field umpires Bismillah Shinwari and Ahmed Durrani, third umpire Ahmed Pakteen and fourth umpire Izatullah Safi.

He was handed a four-match ban, ruling him out of four T20Is – the first of which was served during West Indies’ 30-run victory against Afghanistan on Thursday.

“I know Pooran since he was 17 years old and he is not that type of player,” Bravo added. “Yes, that happened, the evidence is there. But deep down inside he doesn't mean anything [bad] to cheat or anything.

“It is just a silly mistake on his part. He accepted it. But I know the individual personally, and that is not something he will ever do or encourage anyone to do. It is just a simple mistake, he gets caught, he accepts it, but he is far from that type of player."

After the initial incident, Pooran took ownership of his misdemeanour and issued an immediate apology.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

^{Nicholas Pooran was caught on camera changing the condition of the ball}

The decision by the ICC to hit Pooran with a heftier penalty than that given to Australia’s Cameron Bancroft relates to the difference in charges laid against each player.

Before Cricket Australia issued Bancroft with a separate nine-month ban following the sandpaper scandal that erupted in 2018 at Cape Town, Bancroft had been handed three demerit points and a fine worth 75 per cent of his match fee.

While Bancroft was trying to change the condition of the ball in Cape Town, the on-field umpires – Richard Illingworth and Nigel Llong – decided against replacing it, having decided that no damage had been done.

The Australian was therefore punished for a level 2 breach of the code of conduct, relating to article 2.2.9 - carrying a foreign object onto the field of play with the intention of altering the condition of the ball.

By contrast, Pooran accepted the charge of a level 3 breach, incurring a stronger punishment.

Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt said: “Mr Pooran is a young player who has made a grave error of judgement. He will suffer the penalty and will be missed from the team. I am confident this situation will be used by him, and all concerned in CWI, as a learning experience.”