Cricket is as funny as it’s serious, as technical as it’s instinctive, as calculated as it’s imaginative. As much as we would like, there are rules governing the game. Just like sledging beyond a certain limit is a no-no, similarly, batting, bowling, fielding, all of these come with certain rules and regulations. When one takes a look at bowling, there’s a certain way it has to be done for it to be considered legal. Otherwise, it isn’t bowling at all. It’s called chucking, or throwing, which, given the name, can be done by any tom, dick and harry. What sets ‘bowlers’ apart from the rest of the crowd is the way they do it.
Angles, speed, length, wide, this and that — a lot of things go into making a delivery a standard, recognised one. There’s a lot of things that a bowler must take care of before he charges in and hurls one at the batsmen. There have been a lot of controversies about bowling, but the biggest concern, till date, has been chucking, or throwing, which essentially means that the bowler cannot extent his arm while he is bowling. The degree declared as permissible, by the International Cricket Council is 15 degrees, but more often than not, bowlers have been found to be violating this, leading to the on-field umpires calling them.
While it is impossible and often dangerous for batsmen to play these kind of deliveries, it is also equally difficult to spot the angle of bent with the naked eye. Even though this is how it used to be done in the past, the advent of technology has made life a lot more easier for the umpires, especially when it comes to monitoring these little things.
The strictest action taken by the ICC about this issue is suspension, and being suspended twice in a span of two years, they are automatically suspended for a year. Usually the suspension, if it isn’t appealed against is often done after remedial sessions, trying to work on the bent.
If we take the recent case of Saeed Ajmal being banned, this isn’t the first time the off spinner has been reported for suspected bowling action. Even in 2009, he was called, but then the ICC eventually cleared him. What is more interesting is the fact that over the recent times, four off spinners have been reported. It is alarming as well, because Ajmal happens to be the No 1 ranked bowlers in the ICC ODI rankings.
Remedials and biomechanics have helped to a large extent, but the idea is to nip it in the bud, ie during trainings itself, so that the team doesn’t have to bear the brunt.
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