Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar will not face any action from the Pakistan Cricket Board after being found guilty of ball tampering.

He was given a severe reprimand by match referee Clive Lloyd earlier this month after the umpires reported him during the first Test against Zimbabwe in Harare.

"The umpires and I inspected the ball and it was clear to us that it had been scratched," Lloyd said.

Team manager Brigadier Khawaja Nasir subsequently sent a report about the matter to the Board.

But officials have decided that no further punishment in necessary.

"Since the match referee Clive LIoyd just reprimanded Akhtar we find the issue not big enough. We think the matter is closed now," said PCB general manager Zakir Khan.

Law 42.3b states that it is "unfair for anyone to rub the ball on the ground for any reason, or interfere with any of the seams or the surface of the ball."

It is also illegal to "use any implement, or take any other action whatsoever which is likely to alter the condition of the ball."

Pakistan captain Waqar Younis is the only player ever to have received a ban for ball-tampering.

He was given a one-match suspension two years ago after he was seen lifting the seam during a one-day international against South Africa in Sri Lanka.

Shoaib, meanwhile, will not play in the five one-day internationals in Zimbabwe because of a knee problem.

Team management do not want to aggravate the problem ahead of the tour to South Africa which follows, but the PCB are sending a doctor to Zimbabwe to check on his condition.