Early action needed to iron out problems (24 January 1999)

24 January 1999

Early action needed to iron out problems

By Ian Chappell

I DON'T believe Muttiah Muralitharan gains any unfair advantage from his action and as a batsman that's all I ever worried about. Having done a fair bit of experimenting in the nets, I believe that to gain any real advantage from throwing it has to be so blatant as to be obvious to even a novice umpire.

The fair delivery law and the definition of a throw are less than clear-cut and leave the impression that if all bowlers followed them to the letter of the law they wouldn't be very penetrative and there would be a lot of boring batting exhibitions. They also don't appear to leave much room for unusual actions and Muralitharan's is highly unnatural. However, he shouldn't be called just because he's different or because he can do things with his wrist that no one on the International Cricket Council judging panel can do. The law states that a bowler shouldn't be precluded from using the wrist and Muralitharan uses a lot of wrist. Former Australia captain Allan Border says, "Murali is actually a wrist spinner". He makes a good point.

The one delivery that umpire Ross Emerson felt transgressed at the Adelaide Oval didn't appear to be any different (on videotape) to any other off-break Muralitharan has delivered on this tour. Muralitharan is singled out, but in my opinion his former team-mate Kumara Dharmasena's action was an open and shut case - he threw.

There is no way a bowler with a suspicious action should be allowed to reach first-class level, never mind international standard. The officials must implement a system where any schoolboy bowler with a dubious action is given help and if he can't find a solution he is then told to pursue another career. That way we wouldn't have the embarrassing situation where a bowler is humiliated in front of a large crowd and an umpire has to end a player's career and cut off his livelihood. The final decision has to be left in the umpires' hands, but most of the spadework should be done off the field.

Umpire Emerson's credibility was tarnished a few years ago when he called Muralitharan at the Gabba for throwing, and some of those deliveries were leg-breaks. Yet Emerson was given another Sri Lankan game and when he called Muralitharan from square leg it started a chain reaction of events that hasn't been matched at the Adelaide Oval since the 'Bodyline' Test when the crowd threatened to jump the fence. This was not a pretty sight, especially at a time when cricket has had its name dragged through the mud over a number of issues, none of which has been satisfactorily resolved by the ICC. It is time for action from the officials - and I don't mean dubious action.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)