Experienced Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has completed testing on his bowling action at the ICC-accredited Biomechanics Laboratory here today and the report will be sent to the ICC and Pakistan Cricket Board sometime during next week.
Hafeez was made to wait at the airport on arrival this morning at the Immigration for close to two hours before being cleared. The senior all-rounder underwent a bio-mechanic test on his bowling action at the Sri Ramachandra Arthroscopy and Sports Sciences Centre (SRASSC) here for about two hours including calibration time and then rushed back to airport to return to Colombo to join his team.
The 34-year old all-rounder had earlier on Jan 2 this year underwent “testing for a suspect bowling action” before being selected to represent Pakistan in the World Cup and he was hauled for the same offence during a match against Sri Lanka recently and was asked to undergo a re-test now.
“The duration of testing was close to two hours. The testing process involved all aspects of bio-mechanical assessment of the player and medical screening by sports physician with relevant investigation besides motion analysis, especially under match intensity,” a reliable source told PTI.
“It takes time as results of the analysis will have to be evaluated by experts and a comprehensive report compiled. It takes three to five minutes to view and analyse each of the large number of frames and make it as a video before sending it along with our report to the respective Board,” the source said.
The source further added,”Generally, off-spinners are considered as straight forward bowlers. He has to bowl with the same action and perhaps he has replicated his action in a match and that is the reason he has been called and sent here for re-check here.”
“That is the only thing that we are to check from the huge amount of clippings that has been taken today. We will be finding whether he has bowled in the same intensity with same action, same revolution and same speed while we screen and analyse the clippings.
“We will be measuring all those critical clippings before we send our report to the ICC and Pakistan cricket board,”the source said. He said,”Unlike some other international bowlers like Sunil Naraine and others, Hafeez is more of an orthodox off-spinner and there are not much of variations in his bowling methods. He does not have a doosra. But it took some long time in the processes of testing Hafeez today.”
“It is therefore difficult for a bowler to re-model his action and more over the Umpires are given enormous powers in these matters. The ICC’s protocol is that such bowlers called for suspected actions have to undergo the test within 14 days time. We will be completing the testing sometime next week since holidays are intervening , the sources signed off.