Ajmal Action Reported

[Migara]

England collapsed to Rehman, may be we can report his action too.

 

[Maximas]

Good to see the ICC trying to get on top of the issue, hope Ajmal is still bowling legally and gets cleared though

 

[kykweer.proteas]

Mostly I think he is okay, but his doosra is absolutely ridiculous

 

[LegionOfBrad]

England's defeat to Pakistan to be struck from the record IMO

I seem to remember he debuted a new magic ball in that series the "Teasrer" which involved walking up to the wicket and throwing it.

 

[CarlsbergXpress]

Just read this......

"In February 2012, the Pakistan Cricket Board was forced to clarify Ajmal's claims that he had been given special dispensation to straighten his arm 23.5 degrees in his bowling action - more than the ICC's 15-degree limit.

After he took 24 wickets as Pakistan whitewashed England 3-0 in a Test series in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Ajmal said he was allowed more leeway because an accident left his arm with a resting position of an 8.5-degree bend."

Anyone else find this a bit suspect?

 

[theegyptian]

Would be pretty mindblowing if Ajmal did get banned. It seems like people in this country (england) have just been starting to advocate and encourage the development of unconventional bowling styles instead of questioning the actions of the bowlers. Seems we might have to rollback on that opinion for the moment. Certainly Moeen shouldn't be trying his doosra anytime soon.

It's clearly a messs.

Did England and Gould ever get an apology from Sri Lanka for all the complaining and veiled accusations of racism they got about the reporting of Senanayke's action?

Seems like the umpires have the least power of anybody. Seems like short of punching an umpire these days you can say or do anything towards them.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Gould on a mission then.

To be honest is anyone surprised?

Always looked suspect and if he passes then it ends the arguments.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Gould on a mission then.

To be honest is anyone surprised?

Always looked suspect and if he passes then it ends the arguments.

He will certainly have felt empowered after getting it right with Senanayke's action.

 

[CWB304]

Why now? He's been blatantly chucking certain deliveries from the beginning. Let's hope Erasmus - or someone equally respected - is given the responsibility for determining whether he's doing now something which he wasn't doing before.

 

[Cabinet96]

I would have thought the opposite - for the integrity of the game he actually has to fail. Too many batsman have been ripped off.

But they're only ripped off if he fails. If he doesn't then they're perfectly legitimate wickets. You really think the legitimacy of the game will improve if it's shown that large quantities of batsman were ripped off by struggling against someone who was bowling illegally?

 

[kykweer.proteas]

Problem is that it is only certain types of deliveries that are suspect... he could still easily be cleared by bowling normal deliveries, even adjust his Doosra slightly to be in spec, but he can still chuck it during test matches, will be a brave umpire to accuse him again... it is a lose lose situation.

 

[91Jmay]

Yeah Angelo should really have apologised to Gould for his horse**** comments.

 

[cnerd123]

Just read this......

"In February 2012, the Pakistan Cricket Board was forced to clarify Ajmal's claims that he had been given special dispensation to straighten his arm 23.5 degrees in his bowling action - more than the ICC's 15-degree limit.

After he took 24 wickets as Pakistan whitewashed England 3-0 in a Test series in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Ajmal said he was allowed more leeway because an accident left his arm with a resting position of an 8.5-degree bend."

Anyone else find this a bit suspect?

Link?

I think Ajmal and the reporters both mis-understood the law there. You are allowed to straighten by 15 degrees. If Ajmal starts with an 8.5 degree bend and is allowed to straighten by 15 degrees, that means he can bend his arm till 23.5 degrees before straightening it back out to 8.5 degrees.

For people with a 0 degree resting bend on their arm, they can bend it to 15 degrees and straighten it back to 0 during the release. For people with a 1 degree resting bend on their arm, they can go from 16 to 1. The bowler doesn't even need any resting bend in their arm. Even if their arm is perfectly straight, they can choose to bowl bent arm, which is legal as long as they don't straighten by more than 15 degrees. So they can start at 55 degrees and straighten it to 40 degrees and that would be fine (tho one would imagine terribly hard to bowl with).

The law controls how much you can straighten your arm, not to what extent you can bend it.

I think Ajmal's fine if that's the case.

However if he has been allowed to straighten by 23.5 degrees...then I am not quite sure how that works. Maybe they feel the 23.5 degrees to 8.5 degrees straightening is controllable, but he can't control the flex from 8.5 degrees to 0 degrees.

As for testing Herath and Perera - I think the testing methods have been tested with several 'normal' bowlers and found to be accurate and reliable, and that the results must have shown that if you don't notice a flaw in the action then there most probably isn't one. That is how they came about with the seemingly arbitrary number of 15 degrees to begin with. They said that's the amount of straightening visible to the naked eye - I.E. it would have to be atleast 15 till you could spot a chuck. And it is probably the case that with a bent-arm action (Like Ajmal) that the amount of straightening till it looks like a chuck is lower, hence the optical illusion that has stigmatised guys like Murali and Akhtar.

However given how Shillingford, Senanayke and Williamson have all been banned recently after being called up, and Samuels a short while before them, I don't feel very optimistic for Ajmal here.

I do hope he passes though.

 

[viriya]

Hope he is cleared but the recent cases don't give a lot of confidence..

 

[OverratedSanity]

I've always thought he chucks it anyway. If he's cleared, then fine, but no harm in checking because it does look fishy.

The problem with Ajmal is that I dont think he chucks virtually everything like Senanayake, but he seems to bowl that effort ball/extra ripping doosra that looks so horrendous it just crosses that line of "could be an illusion" to "thats a blatant chuck". When he's tested in the lab I don't think he'll bowl that effort ball. And yeah, I know they compare it with match footage but I don't know whether they'll specifically compare it with that effort ball.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Hope he is cleared but the recent cases don't give a lot of confidence..

Have no idea what that has to do with what Ajmal's result will be. If he's clean, he'll be cleared. If not, then he should gtfo. Sena's banning has no bearing on this.

 

[viriya]

tbh I thought Sena and Ajmal actions looked very similar in terms of how much they straightened. And I also thought Sena only had issues with his effort ball, and it turned out to be much worse than that.

 

[CarlsbergXpress]

Link?

I think Ajmal and the reporters both mis-understood the law there. You are allowed to straighten by 15 degrees. If Ajmal starts with an 8.5 degree bend and is allowed to straighten by 15 degrees, that means he can bend his arm till 23.5 degrees before straightening it back out to 8.5 degrees.

I would question if during his bowling action his arm straightens back to it's 'resting' 8.5 degrees. Surely if he's putting a bit of effort in, say for his doosra, it is more than likely that it will straighten further than that? Anyhow my opinion is that he probably does chuck the doosra as it looks distinctly 'chucky' when I've seen him bowl it. I hope I'm wrong though as I have very much enjoyed watching him bowl over the years, even when he's destroying our boys! I also wonder if/how they replicate match conditions/deliveries in these tests, judging by the names already mentioned that have been banned recently I guess they must do somehow.

 

[CarlsbergXpress]

Oh and sorry it was from the bbc.......
BBC Sport - Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal reported to ICC over bowling action

 

[cnerd123]

Oh and sorry it was from the bbc.......
BBC Sport - Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal reported to ICC over bowling action

Yea the PCB clarifies it here:
BBC Sport - Saeed Ajmal claims clarified by Pakistan Cricket Board

International Cricket Council regulations state a bowler may straighten his arm 15 degrees.

But Ajmal, whose arm has an 8.5-degree bend at rest, says he is permitted to straighten his arm 23.5 degrees.

The PCB said: "Saeed was referring to the angle of the upper arm to forearm and not the degree of elbow extension."

Ajmal told BBC Sport: "Someone is telling me my action is bad, but the ICC allow me to bowl 23.5 degrees because my arm is not good, but that's my problem. Apart from that, there is no problem with my action, it has been cleared by the ICC."