Henry Nicholls has been cleared of ball tampering charges  after being accused during a Plunket Shield match between Canterbury and Auckland at the Hagley Oval.

Following Canterbury’s victory over Auckland at the Hagley Oval by eight wickets, the umpires for the game, Derek Walker and Kim Cotton, reported Nicholls for a breach of New Zealand Cricket’s Code of Conduct.

It was alleged that video footage from the game showed Nicholls scraping the ball against the rim of a helmet in between overs while fielding, leading to the umpires charging him under Rule 3.1, article 1.15 of the New Zealand Cricket Code of Conduct, which deals with changing the condition of the ball (or ball tampering) in breach of Law 41.3 of the laws of cricket.

The umpires had raised the issue with first-class commissioners. Following a disciplinary hearing, however, Nicholls has been cleared of all charges as the commissioners found that the evidence wasn’t enough to constitute a breach.

“Neither actions of Nicholls nor the evidence presented met the threshold required to rule a breach. We find the Player’s actions were, in fact, unlikely to alter the condition of the ball or the shape of the ball,” said the independent commissioners Lee Robinson and John Greenwood in a hearing where they heard submissions from Nicholls, the umpires, Canterbury coach Peter Fulton, Canterbury High Performance Manager Ant Sharp, and New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association representative Evan Jones.

Had Nicholls been found guilty of a Level 2 offence, he risked a fine amounting to his entire match fee along with NZ$500 as well as a match suspension according to a stuff.co.nz report.

Nicholls missed out on New Zealand’s World Cup squad, but has been selected for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh following the tournament.

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