Cricket: ICC enforces chucking decision

The International Cricket Council has flexed its muscles for the first time after instituting the contentious 15-degree rule to identify and control "chuckers" - bowlers who throw the ball as opposed to bowling it with a straight arm.

Pakistani Shoaib Malik, currently involved in the test series in Australia, has been told not to bowl in test cricket until he undergoes remedial action on his off-break and doosra deliveries. Professor Bruce Elliott, a biomechanics specialist, conducted tests on Malik and recommended the measures, stating Malik had elbow-extension levels above the ICC's current and proposed levels of acceptability.

Malik, 22, will not figure in the third test against Australia today because of injury to his bowling hand. He was reported for a suspect action during a match against Sri Lanka at Lahore in October.

It was second time in his career - the first was in 2002 - he had been reported. Since then he has undergone extensive tests under the supervision of bowling and biomechanics experts at the University of Western Australia.

The ICC's decision to use umpires' reports and bio-mechanics to identify possible chuckers, and then work with them to remedy their actions, was the product of years of research. At the time, many critics (including this writer) felt the action rubber-stamped the record-breaking achievements of Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan whose celebrated deformed arm led to many calling him a thrower. The ICC's 15-degree rule - being the amount a bowler can lawfully bend the arm - just happened to be one degree more than Murali usually bowls his doosra, effectively rendering him fit to play and giving umpires an escape clause.

While still not abandoning this criticism, it is nonetheless pleasing to see the ICC following through on recommendations which seemed, at first glance, a sop. It is also pleasing to see the first report on Malik coming from the sub-continent - not always a region which has covered itself in glory with regards to the rules of cricket.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY