WELLINGTON: Pakistani cricketer Haris Sohail was left “visibly shaken” after a ghostly encounter in a Christchurch hotel room, team manager Naveed Akram Cheema said on Tuesday.

Haris fled what he believed was “a supernatural presence” which shook his bed at the Rydges Latimer hotel, taking refuge in the room of a team coach after the encounter earlier this week.

Cheema said on Tuesday Haris, 26, phoned a member of the coaching staff to say he had been woken by his bed being shaken.

The coach rushed to Sohail’s room and found him shaken and feverish.Cheeva said management tried to persuade Sohail the fever may have caused a nightmare, but the player was adamant his experience was supernatural.

The hotel’s management says it knew of “no active ghost” on the premises.

Haris, a left-arm spinner and middle-order batsman who has played nine One-day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals, was so “traumatised” by the experience he has been unable to train and was forced to miss a one-day warm-up match against a New Zealand President’s XI.

Haris 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.”

Another replied: “You’ve faced down Shaitaan [the devil], the Kiwis should be easy. Best wishes.”

Haris took the field in a second warm-up game in Christchurch and made 6 runs from 25 balls when batting at number four on Tuesday.

Cheema said Haris was examined by the team doctor after his encounter and found to be in good health. “He’s OK and he’s concentrating on cricket as he should be,” he said.

“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.”

The 4.5-star Rydges Latimer has been rebuilt since the 2011 earthquake that devastated Christchurch and claimed 185 lives. There have been no overnight earthquakes recorded in Christchurch since the Pakistan team arrived.

It is not the first time an international cricketer has complained of ghostly goings-on in the night. England fast bowler Stuart Broad switched rooms at London’s Langham Hotel last year after a ghostly experience.

Broad told the Daily Mail newspaper he had woken in the night and “all of a sudden the taps in the bathroom came on for no reason. I turned the lights on and the taps turned themselves off. Then when I turned the lights off again, the taps came on. It was very weird.”

In 2005 several of the Australian party complained of paranormal activity at Lumley Castle hotel, which looms over Durham county’s Riverside ground.

Australia all-rounder Shane Watson fled to the room of teammate Brett Lee after becoming spooked in his own room at the 600-year-old castle which is rumoured to be haunted by Lily, an aristocratic lady murdered in the 14th century.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2015

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