MORE: ICC 2015 World Cup: Batsmen who can change a game
Pakistan team manager Naveed Akram Cheema said rising star Haris Sohail woke up in the night, scared there was a "supernatural presence" in his room at the Rydges Latimer Christchurch.
The 26-year-old was convinced a malevolent ghost had pushed him while he slept.......
The all-rounder insisted on being immediately moved to another room.
Since his encounter, Sohail has reportedly been so "freaked out" he has been unable to resume training.
He missed Pakistan's first World Cup warm-up match against the New Zealand President XI on Sunday. It was uncertain if he would have recovered enough to play in the second warm-up match on Tuesday.
Sohail is not the first cricketer to be "spooked by a ghost".
Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was frightened by an ill-natured presence while he stayed at the Lumley Castle Hotel in England in 2005.
A 'ghost' at Lumley Castle near Durham forced Shane Watson to change hotel rooms before a one-day match in 2005. Photo: Getty
He packed his bags and fled to Brett Lee's room, and was mercilessly taunted by cries of "boo!" on the pitch.
Watson later claimed he had not actually seen a ghost but had been wound up by the team bus driver's local legends.
"Then I went back to my room, and it was a tiny little room, and I had to walk through a dungeon to get there, so I got a bit spooked out. I didn't see anything but it was a very spooky sort of place and it definitely freaked me out, things that probably aren't there but some people believe are there … I think I've grown up a bit since then," Watson said in reflection a few years later.
English paceman Stuart Broad was also haunted out of sleep and asked to change rooms while staying at a five-star hotel in London last year.
The Langham Hotel is notorious for its room 333 - "the most haunted room in London" - and there have been many claims in the past of ghosts pursuing hapless guests.
Pakistan cricketer Haris Sohail has ghost in hotel room
