suspect actions ~ who is clean and how many have escaped !!!!

What does an Hospital have to do with Cricket ? …… Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute  is a deemed university  operating in Porur, Chennai. Sri Ramachandra Hospital  by  Mr  NPV Ramaswamy Udayar  subsequently becoming a University in 1994.  The hospital became a landmark in the outskirts of Chennai, located  in a sprawling 175 acre University campus. . The medical centre is an 8 storied building with around 692 beds, 171 Intensive care units.

With that powerful knock of Suresh Raina, CSK coasted to a win over KKR in the CLT20 finals.  KKR missed their mystery spinner Sunil Narine, who was barred from bowling for Kolkata Knight Riders in the  final after being reported for a second time in two matches for a suspect action. He was reported by the umpires after Thursday's semi-final against Hobart Hurricanes, which Knight Riders won by seven wickets. He had also been reported following their final group match, against Dolphins, when the umpires questioned his quicker delivery.  According to ESPNcricinfo, the umpires, Rod Tucker, S Ravi and  Vineet Kulkarni, had noted in their written complaint that several of the 24 deliveries Narine bowled against Hurricanes were suspect. "It was three deliveries in the last match. But this time all his four overs were reported," an official privy to the complaint said.

According to a Champions League T20 release, the umpires reviewed footage of the semi-final and "felt that there was a flex action in Narine's elbow beyond the acceptable limit when bowling during the match". He had already been on the tournament's warning list and, since he had not subsequently had his action cleared, is now automatically banned from bowling further in the tournament. Knight Riders will now be "advised" to send Narine to the Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai - which has been accredited by the ICC as a testing centre for suspect bowling actions - to have his action tested.

Darren Sammy, Narine's West Indies team-mate, came out in support of him. Clive Lloyd, the chairman of the West Indies selection panel, was livid and  questioned the  decision, highlighting that the offspinner had bowled around the world for years without being reported.  He is quoted as saying that with World Cup coming up. It destroys the individual's ability as such and I think you may end up destroying someone's career. "  Narine became the fourth bowler to be reported in the Champions League - the others being  Lahore Lions' Adnan Rasool and Mohammad Hafeez, and Dolphins' Prenelan Subrayen.  …… it is not all over yest ….as KKR’s part-time bowler Suryakumar Yadav too was reported for suspect bowling action in the finals. The charge was laid by on-field umpires Rod Tucker and Kumar Dharmasena along with third umpire S Ravi.  He bowled 3 overs concdeding 21 without taking a wicket. 

Only recently, the ICC accredited centres in Brisbane and Chennai as testing venues for suspected illegal bowling actions. Cricket Australia's National Cricket Centre in Brisbane and the Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai join Cardiff Metropolitan University as testing facilities for bowlers reported in international cricket. The accreditation comes in a year when the ICC have becoming increasingly vigilant over bowling actions.  An ICC release said that the two centres were assessed for several factors including the availability of "a motion analysis system with a minimum of 12 high speed cameras capable of producing three-dimensional data", qualified personnel to operate the system and enough indoor space for tests to be conducted. Though the ICC announced that Brisbane facility was accredited only recently,  the highest-profile bowler to be reported this year, Pakistan offspinner Saeed Ajmal, had been sent to Brisbane for testing in August.

Darrel Hair no balls Murali (Photo credit : smh.com.au)

In Sydney Morning Herald, former spinner Ashley Mallet had written a scathing attack supporting Darrel Hair.  Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal was recently tested by the accredited team of human movement specialists at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane and their analysis found that all of Ajmal's deliveries far exceeded the 15-degree level of tolerance. In fact, some of his deliveries were more than double the tolerated degree of flex. Ajmal's action has been pretty much the same from the day he first set foot on the Test stage. He's taken a hefty 178 wickets in just 35 Tests at an average of 28.10. Should he be stripped of all those wickets? In a just cricket world, that would happen. Ajmal's chucking should have been pulled up long ago, but the authorities turned a blind eye.  

“There appears to be a new vigour and will within the ICC to stamp out throwing, but the best way to gather evidence will come to pass when we get the technology to test all bowlers under playing conditions. When that day comes, I suspect we will have a whole bunch of so-called elite off-spinners announcing their retirement. All cricket followers want the umpires to clamp down on chucking. Cricket Australia could do no better than bringing in Hair to advise umpires. Hair was fearless in his dealings with bowlers with suspect actions. Hopefully our umpires are prepared to take on the chuckers Down Under this summer.” – wrote Ashley Mallett who played 38 Tests taking 132 wickets.

It would also be fair to recall what Muttiah Muralitharan wrote in The Age in 2004 -  when he claimed that three of Australia's leading pacemen were bowling with illegal actions. It was  Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie  who according to Murali were  flexing their arms beyond the legal limit.  Under the applicable laws, fast bowlers may flex their arms by 10 degrees just before delivery.  Murali had asked - "McGrath is bowling about 13 (degrees), Gillespie about 12 and Brett Lee about 14 or 15, so what about them then, the Australian players?" .   Murali expressed that he had been subject to unfair scrutiny throughout his career because other cricket nations were jealous of his achievements.

After much water flowed down, Darren Lehmann played a master stroke in bringing in Murali to bowl to and advise Aussie batsmen before the two-Test campaign against Pakistan on spin-friendly wickets in the United Arab Emirates.  To conclude, it was way back in 1963-64 Series that Australian fast bowler Ian Meckiff was called for throwing by umpire Col Egar. Egar had no response to Meckiff's first ball but then shattered the convivial atmosphere of a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon by calling no ball to the second, third, fifth and ninth deliveries.  He reportedly later privately claimed that eight of Meckiff's 12 balls were illegal "but if I had called them all he would never have finished the over". With the crowd in uproar, Richie Benaud, captaining Australia for the last time, told Meckiff he was not prepared to bowl him again. Left-armer Meckiff never played the game again.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

6^th Oct 2o14.