Afridi says he was trying to smell the ball!

“I tried to smell it. There was some things on it that I tried to move,” Afridi told ABC radio in his defence.

Afridi later pleaded guilty when he was charged by match referee Ranjan Madugalle with article 2.2.9 offence of ICC Code of Conduct for breaching Law 42.3 of the Laws of Cricket and was handed a ban of two Twenty20 Internationals.

“I don’t know what happened to me that made me do such a mad thing. It was not right and I apologise for my actions to everyone. What happened was very unfortunate and should not have happened. I have learnt from my mistake and will not repeat it again,” he said.

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam said Afridi’s actions were unacceptable. “It is unfortunate, he has accepted it that he should not have done it. It is unacceptable.”

Afridi will miss Pakistan’s next two Twenty20 Internationals against the same opponents on Friday in Melbourne and against England in Dubai on February 19.
“Maybe I lost my cool because our team had not done well in Australia and was finally close to a win. My intentions were just to help the bowlers but I chose the wrong way to do it,” he added.

Afridi, however, said what happened was nothing new in cricket and other teams also tried to alter condition of the ball to give some advantage to their bowlers.
Pakistan Cricket Board sources said that immediately after television cameras showed Afridi biting into the ball to change its condition, a top official called up team manager Abdul Raquib and instructed him not to send Afridi for the closing ceremony and instead ask regular captain Mohammad Yousuf to do that job.

In 2005, Afridi was banned for twisting his spikes and trying to change the condition of the pitch during a Test match in Faisalabad against England.

Madugalle, the ICC has said, imposed him the maximum penalty for Afridi’s offence. “Shahid was charged with an article 2.2.9 offence of the ICC Code of Conduct which relates to ‘changing the condition of the ball in breach of Law 42.3 of the Laws of Cricket’. He has received two suspension points after breaching the Code. Two suspension points in the code means a ban of a Test, two ODIs or two T20Is,” the ICC said.

Malik to lead
Shoaib Malik will lead Pakistan in Friday’s one-off Twenty20 international against Australia in Melbourne.

‘Afridi’s act cost Pak the match’
The Australian captain Ricky Ponting says Afridi’s ball-tampering could have cost Pakistan the fifth one-dayer.Australia needed 35 runs off 30 balls with just three wickets remaining when Afridi was nabbed and the ball replaced. Ponting said the incident would have unsettled Afridi and potentially cost Pakistan a chance of winning its first game on an otherwise dreadful tour.

“He would have had all sorts of things going through his mind for the last couple of overs and as captain you have enough going through your head without worrying about things like that.”