Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal and Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazi can resume bowling in international cricket, after the ICC cleared their bowling actions following remedial work and retests.
Ajmal had withdrawn from the World Cup in December to avoid taking “a risk with his career” and he can now be included in Pakistan’s squad only if a player gets injured. Pakistan had recently replaced the injured Junaid Khan with Rahat Ali only two days ago.
However, the umpires are still at liberty to report Ajmal or Gazi in the future if they believe they are displaying a suspect action and not reproducing the legal actions from the retests. Umpires have been provided with images and video footage of the bowlers’ significantly remodeled legal bowling actions.
Their retests were held at the Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai on January 24.
Ajmal was suspended from bowling in September after his action was deemed to be illegal for all deliveries. Before he was banned, tests revealed his elbow extension was going up to 42 degrees on average, leading to his suspension. He underwent extensive remedial work on his action with former Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq. Ajmal went through three unofficial Tests that showed his offspinner and faster ball were within the legitimate 15-degree limit, though his doosra was still beyond the limit.
Gazi was reported for a suspect action in Bangladesh’s second ODI against West Indies in August last year and was suspended from bowling in October after he was tested in Cardiff. He had been working towards a remedy with Bangladesh spin coach Ruwan Kalpage, under whose supervision he had bowled in the nets during the Zimbabwe series.
Gazi had not been included in Bangladesh’s 15-man squad for the World Cup.
ALLARDICE SAYS SYSTEM WORKING REASONABLY WELL
The ICC’s drive against chucking has gone some way towards rectifying a problem that had “started to get out of control”, according to the ICC’s cricket operations manager Geoff Allardice.
“I think it’s been widely acknowledged that it was a problem in the game that it started to get out of control,” Allardice said in Adelaide. “Particularly the umpires have taken a strong stance in reporting bowlers [with suspect actions], and I think the results of the testing have supported their views during that time.
“It’s also encouraging that a number of bowlers have been able to rectify their actions in that period of time and come back to this tournament in a condition where they’re able to bowl without restriction. [Sachithra Senanayake] from Sri Lanka and [New Zealand’s] Kane Williamson have gone through the mediation process and had their actions tested and found to be legal.
“From our point of view, we just want bowlers bowling within the laws of the game, and that no one’s getting an unfair advantage in any way. I think the system is working reasonably well at the moment.”
At the retests, it was revealed that the amount of elbow extensions in both the offspinners’ bowling actions for all their deliveries was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC regulations for the review of bowlers reported with suspected illegal bowling actions.