A Pakistani cricketer has missed a World Cup warm-up match after claiming he was woken up in his New Zealand hotel room by a ghost shaking his bed. Haris Sohail was forced to move rooms after becoming convinced that a ‘supernatural’ presence was haunting him when he found his bed moving on Saturday night. The cricketer, who is on tour with his national side in New Zealand, then spent the rest of the night in a coach’s room at the Rydges Latimer hotel in Christchurch.
The next day, the 26-year-old all rounder was left out of the Pakistan team, who lost to a New Zealand President XI.
According to Pakistan team manager Naveed Akrama Cheema, Mr Sohail was ‘visibly shaken’ after the called a member of the coaching staff following the incident. However, he added that the player had been suffering from a fever at the time.
He explained: ‘We think it was the fever that caused it (but) the player still believes his bed was shaken by something and it was a supernatural something.’
It comes after the cricketer tweeted on Sunday: ‘Allah always answers your duas’.
One of his followers tweeted back: ‘It’s nice to hear that you recovered from that incident in New Zealand. May Allah protect you.’
While another replied: ‘You’ve faced down Shaitaan (the devil), the Kiwis should be easy. Best wishes.’
Sohail was reportedly unable to train for two days after the incident and only scored six when he returned for another warm up game today.
The hotel’s management declined to comment on the incident, referring enquiries to Pakistan team officials.
The 4.5-star Rydges Latimer has been rebuilt since the 2011 earthquake that devastated Christchurch and claimed 185 lives. There has been no overnight earthquake recorded in Christchurch since the Pakistan team arrived.
