Pakistan news Saeed Ajmal banned from bowling

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Pakistan news
Saeed Ajmal banned from bowling
ESPNcricinfo staff
September 9, 2014


Samiuddin: Appealing Ajmal's ban could be tricky
Recent drive against faulty actions

August 2014 - Sohag Gazi reported, to be tested in Cardiff
August 2014 - Prosper Utseya reported, to undergo testing
August 2014 - Saeed Ajmal reported, banned in September
July 2014 - Kane Williamson banned after tests found his action illegal
July 2014 - Sachithra Senanayake banned, undergoes remedial work
December 2013 - Shane Shillingford suspended from bowling, cleared in March 2014; Marlon Samuels prohibited from bowling quicker deliveries
October 2013 - Johan Botha cleared by Cricket Australia after being reported during a domestic match
May 2013 - ECB suspends Glenn Querl, Jack Taylor from bowling
April 2013 - CA bars seamer Cameron Gannon

In a huge blow to Pakistan, offspinner Saeed Ajmal has been banned from bowling in international cricket by the ICC after his action was deemed to be illegal for all deliveries. Ajmal, who has been Pakistan's lead spinner in all formats in recent years, was reported after the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle last month.

The decision to ban him was taken after an ICC accredited team of bio-mechanics experts tested his action at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane. Ajmal can apply to the ICC for a re-assessment at any time after modifying his action.

"An independent analysis has found the bowling action of Pakistan's offspinner Saeed Ajmal to be illegal and, as such, the player has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect," the ICC said. "The analysis revealed that all his deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations."

Ajmal, however, was hopeful that a medical condition - the natural bend in his arm because of an accident - would work in his favour when the appeal is made to the ICC's bowling review group.

"I am positive about this and not worried because I believe I can make the World Cup," Ajmal told reporters in Faisalabad. "They are yet to consider my medical reports and once they do it I am sure there shouldn't be any problem. If one has a medical problem then what can he do? So I am 100% positive and hoping for the best."

Ajmal is the No. 1 ranked bowler in the ICC ODI rankings and is among the top ten in Tests and Twenty20 internationals. He his the highest wicket-taker across formats in the last three years.

This was the second instance of Ajmal being reported for a suspect action. In April 2009, the bowler had been reported while bowling the doosra, and was cleared the following month.

The issue of suspect bowling actions had come up during the ICC cricket committee meeting in June, where there was a general consensus among members that the current methods used to detect illegal actions were imperfect. It had recommended changes to help match officials get more support from biomechanists in order to identify illegal actions with "more confidence".

In the last few months, Sri Lanka offspinner Sachithra Senanayake and New Zealand's Kane Williamson were reported and subsequently banned from bowling due to illegal bowling actions.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

[socafighter]

Martin Bicknell @bickers1969
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Career ending for Ajmal, will never sort that action out. Can you imagine Murali changing action and being just as effective ?
2:57 AM - 9 Sep 2014


Paul Radley @PaulRadley
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2 UAE spinners had doosras ruled illegal & another is absent pending testing. They always felt they suffered as board isn't as strong as PCB
3:04 AM - 9 Sep 2014



David 'Bumble' Lloyd         @BumbleCricket
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“@dhraza: @BumbleCricket what do you make of the news that Saeed Ajmal has been banned?” Inevitable ....
3:01 AM - 9 Sep 2014



Adam Hollioake @adamhollioake
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Ajmal been banned for throwing? I dont get it...just let em play...all the best bowlers chuck anyway!!!
3:28 AM - 9 Sep 2014



Dean Jones         @ProfDeano
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Make no mistake that bowling a Doosra and reverse swing are brilliant skills.. Do we want the Doosra banned?
3:51 AM - 9 Sep 2014


Kevin Pietersen        @KP24
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Wow - Ajmal banned! Never nice to see fellow professionals going through a tough time...hopefully he's back soon!
4:02 AM - 9 Sep 2014



Dav Whatmore        ✔ @dfwhatmore
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Sad to hear of Ajmal's ban... I can possibly understand the doosra but offbreaks? I hope he can correct his actions in time for CWC'15
3:56 AM - 9 Sep 2014


Umar55        ✔ @mdk_gul
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Wish @REALsaeedajmal can modify his bowling action n get back with a bang.biggest asset of Pakistan cricke.all prayers wd him.
3:05 AM - 9 Sep 2014



Saqlain Mushtaq        @Saqlain_Mushtaq
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I will help and support saeed ajmal to the best of my ability if required
2:54 AM - 9 Sep 2014

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PCB mulling options after Ajmal ban
ESPNcricinfo staff
September 9, 2014



Hours after the PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan said the board would appeal the ban on Saeed Ajmal to an ICC-appointed Bowling Review Group (BRG), the PCB has backtracked from that position and said it was "contemplating its future course of action and weighing all options."

"The PCB has referred the matter to its recently-formed Illegal Bowling Action Committee, which will consider the matter and revert with their views and/or recommendations and the Board shall thereafter decide what action to take", Shaharyar said in a PCB statement.

The ICC rules allow the PCB 14 days from the receipt of the report on Ajmal's action to file an appeal. The BRG shall comprise the following persons: a current member of the ICC Code of Conduct Commission (in the Chair and with the casting vote only), a current ICC referee, an ex-international player, an ex-international umpire and a human movement specialist. The ICC General Manager - Cricket shall be an ex-officio member of the BRG.

Earlier today, soon after Ajmal was banned from bowling in international cricket after an independent analysis at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane found all his deliveries to be illegal, the PCB had seemed more certain of its intention to appeal.

Though the PCB was aware that an unsuccessful appeal could lead to Ajmal being banned from bowling in international cricket for a period of time, it said at the time, that it would appeal in order to understand the angles from which Ajmal's action had been analysed. It is understood that the board maintained Ajmal had a medical condition following an accident that affected the movement of his elbow and that had been accepted by the ICC when his action was cleared previously.

"Our experts understood that it is the doosra that may be suspected but that proved wrong because his entire action was called illegal," Shaharyar had said at a press conference earlier in the day. "So that's a concern for us but we are going to appeal because we want to understand if the ICC has covered all the angles or not. An appeal obviously will benefit us because there is the chance that he may be cleared and get back straight away.

"Otherwise if the appeal is unsuccessful we are wary of the one-year ban imposed on him, but then again he can remodel his action within the period and return to cricket. We have two weeks to lodge an appeal. We have to face this with courage and go through it without panicking. We have bowlers who can fill in for Ajmal and won't let the team miss him."

This was the second instance of Ajmal being reported for a suspect action. In April 2009, the bowler had been reported while bowling the doosra, and was cleared the following month.

1330 GMT The story was updated after the PCB issued a release that said it was mulling all courses of action with regard to Saeed Ajmal's ban...

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ICC MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dubai, 9 September 2014
 
Saeed Ajmal’s bowling action found to be illegal
 
The International Cricket Council today confirmed that an independent analysis has found the bowling action of Pakistan’s off-spinner Saeed Ajmal to be illegal and, as such, the player has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect.
 
The analysis revealed that all his deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations.
 
Saeed, who was reported after the first Test match against Sri Lanka in Galle last month, can apply a re-assessment after he has modified his bowling action in accordance with clause 2.4 of the Regulations for the Review of Bowlers Reported with Suspected Illegal Bowling Actions.
 
The analysis was performed on 25 August by the ICC’s accredited team of Human Movement Specialists using the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane.
 

 
For further information, please contact:
 
Sami Ul Hasan
ICC Head of Media and Communications
Mobile: +971 50 452 8662
Email: sami.ulhasan@icc-cricket.com
 
ICC
PO Box 500 070
Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971 4 368 8300
www.icc-cricket.com
 

[socafighter]

Saeed Ajmal suspended over bowling action
→ Afp, Karachi
 
 Top Pakistani off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has been suspended from international cricket after tests found his bowling action was illegal, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said Tuesday.

Ajmal, the world’s number one bowler in one-day internationals, was suspended “with immediate effect” following an assessment in Brisbane last month.

The 36-year-old was reported for a suspect action after last month’s first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. He can apply for a re-assessment once he has modified his action.

“The player has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect,” the ICC statement said.

“The analysis revealed that all his deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations.”

The ruling is a blow to Pakistan ahead of their series against Australia in the United Arab Emirates starting next month. It also comes just a few months before the one-day Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which starts in February.

Ajmal will now undergo remedial work on his bowling action in the Western Australian University at Perth where human movement expert Daryl Foster will work on his action. The ICC said Ajmal can be tested again once the remedial work report is satisfactory.

“Ajmal can apply for a re-assessment after he has modified his bowling action in accordance with rules,” said the ICC.

But if Ajmal is cleared and reported again within a period of two years he will be banned from all international cricket for 12 months.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) called a meeting to discuss the ICC announcement and vowed to appeal.

“It’s a big jolt for us. It’s not easy to replace a player like Ajmal who is a match-winner, and we will appeal against the ICC decision,” said a PCB spokesman.

Ajmal became the seventh Pakistani to be reported for a suspect action.

Pakistani paceman Shabbir Ahmed was the first bowler in international cricket to be banned for 12 months after his action was reported twice in a 12-month period.

Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi, Riaz Afridi and Shoaib Malik were other Pakistani bowlers reported for suspect actions in the past.

West Indian Shane Shillingford was also banned for a year after his action was reported twice in 2013.

The ICC has recently come down hard on bowlers with suspect actions after its cricket committee decided no bowler should be allowed to play at international level without remedial work.

Daily sun

[socafighter]

Workload took toll on Ajmal's action
With biomechanics at the crux of the ICC's testing process, it is important to find out how much of an advantage a kinked action gives to bowling
Osman Samiuddin
September 9, 2014


Saeed Ajmal banned from bowling in international cricket
Since May 24, 2009, Saeed Ajmal has bowled 18,310 deliveries across all international matches for Pakistan. That does not include how much he has bowled in domestic matches, in various leagues across the world. At the international level only James Anderson (18,759) has bowled more in the same period.

Since May 2011, when Ajmal really established himself as an all-format player for Pakistan, nobody has bowled more than his 13,346 deliveries.

May 24, 2009 is not an arbitrary date. That was the day Ajmal was cleared by the ICC of having a suspect action, having been reported by umpires after the second ODI against Australia in Dubai a month before.

It is that figure of 18,310 on either side of which lie the keys to his clearance then and his suspension now, after being called again by umpires last month.. That is a monstrous workload for one bowler and Pakistan's reliance on him has been burdensome to the point of breaking him.

Ajmal bowls around 50 overs a Test, making up about 30% of all overs Pakistan bowl in a match. Spiritually he has been their bowling leader, arguably the first spinner to be the main man in a Pakistan attack for a prolonged period. He is the one they turn to for wickets, for slowing down run rates, for calming the nerves of a side and country.

It goes to his unending credit that he bore that burden in the manner that he has, smiling, uncomplaining and successful. But here is the point. Under such strains, actions - which are not always the same every single ball anyway - can change.

They can deteriorate. Will the body deliver with the same forces and positions as it did five years ago, having undergone such an intense amount of work in the interim?

In Ajmal's case, it has emerged that it cannot. One version of the conclusions from his recent testing say his action has changed significantly since the last time he was tested; in particular his bowling arm was more bent, or flexed, at the elbow joint with the arm in a horizontal position as he prepares to bring it over his shoulder than in 2009.


Naturally then, when it then straightens upon release, it does so to a greater angle than before and vitally, a greater angle than the 15 degrees permitted. The bottom line is that the action is significantly different and so too the results of the testing process.

Are the testing procedures much different to what they were last time? Especially now as the ICC and the laboratory in Perth that used to be the main testing centre - and where Ajmal was tested in 2009 - no longer have a working relationship?

There are little differences according to the ICC but not, they insist, to a degree that would be the difference in this case between his action being cleared or not. Ajmal has not marginally gone over the accepted limits; in all his different types of deliveries, he has transgressed significantly enough for minimal differences in testing procedures to not matter.

It is important to look at this as dryly as possible, without emotion. There is a law, and science has apparently proved that Ajmal's action breaches that law. It does not say Ajmal is a cheat or a villain. He is someone simply bowling with his body and muscle memory wired the way it is.

The ICC is not ostensibly carrying out the kind of moral crusade it was years ago, or its umpires have in the recent past. Or if it is, it is at least couching it within science and legalities. This is a law that has not been enforced well recently and now it is being enforced better. It is a bureaucratic clampdown: break the law, be sanctioned. It is not so specifically an ideological purge: cheat, be banished forever like a leper.

It is also never a bad time to argue about that law. Given how keenly it now employs biomechanics in this regard, is it not imperative for cricket to find out more about how much help a kinked action gives to bowling generally and a doosra specifically?

Are we sure the doosra can only be bowled by flexing beyond accepted limits? How about we address the real root of the problem? That the game is so heavily loaded in favour of batsman it has become deeply imbalanced.

It is at that level that this stings the most. One of the world's most dangerous and watchable bowlers over the last five years, one who has sought to level that imbalance, may not bowl again internationally. Feast on, batsmen.

This article was first published in The National.

Osman Samiuddin is a sportswriter at the National. @sprtnationaluae

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Ajmal's flex more than twice legal limit - ICC report
ESPNcricinfo staff
September 12, 2014

What is an illegal bowling action?
An illegal bowling action is one in which the bowler's 'elbow extension' exceeds 15 degrees while he is in his delivery stride. The ICC set the 15-degree limit for all bowlers in November 2004.

What constitutes elbow extension?
Elbow extension includes flexion (in this case, the closing of the elbow joint) and extension (the straightening of the elbow joint).
Does a bent arm automatically signify an illegal action?

If the arm is bent at the onset of the delivery stride but remains rigid or does not flex or extend beyond the permissible 15 degrees during the duration of the stride, the action is not illegal. An action is only illegal if the arm flexes or extends beyond the permissible limit while in the delivery stride.

Saeed Ajmal's average elbow extension is more than twice the permissible limit of 15 degrees, according to an ICC report available with ESPNcricinfo following biomechanical testing of his bowling action.

Ajmal, who was banned on September 9 after tests at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, was found to flex his elbow up to an average of 42 degrees while bowling, the report said. Ajmal was assessed bowling offspin from over and around the wicket, the doosra and quicker balls, and none of the deliveries were close to the permissible limit, the report said.

As per ICC rules, a bowler can have maximum elbow extension or flex - the amount he bends and straightens his elbow while delivering the ball - of 15 degrees; anything more, and the action is deemed to be illegal.

As per the report, during the tests Ajmal's average elbow extension stood at 37 to 39 degrees for offspin delivered over the wicket, 41 to 42 degrees for offspin bowled around the wicket, 40 degrees for the doosra, 38 degrees for quicker ones around the wicket and 42 degrees for quicker balls over the wicket.


Results of over-by-over testing as per the ICC report

1st over, offspin over the wicket: Average elbow extension 39 degrees
2nd over, offspin over the wicket: 37 degrees
3rd over, offspin around the wicket: 41 degrees
4th over, offspin around the wicket (wide of the crease): 41 degrees
5th over, offspin around the wicket: 42 degrees
6th over, doosra around the wicket: 40 degrees
7th over, quicker balls around the wicket: 38 degrees
8th over, quicker balls over the wicket: 42 degrees

Following news of the report leaking, PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan admitted that the tests found Ajmal's elbow extension to be well over the legal limit. "Some of the deliveries had very high elbow extension, over 40 degrees," Khan told AFP. "The mean of Ajmal's deliveries was 37 degrees which again is high and now we have a challenge to do the remedial work."

Ajmal is set to undergo remedial work on his action from September 15. He can apply for reassessment of his action once he has undergone remedial work, and if it is cleared then, his suspension will be lifted.

This was the second instance of Ajmal being reported for a suspect action. In April 2009, he had been reported for his doosra, and was cleared the following month.

The ICC rules allow the PCB 14 days from the receipt of the report on Ajmal's action to file an appeal, though the Pakistan board has seemingly been veering away from taking this course of action. Ajmal, though, had said after being banned that such an appeal could work in his favour since he had a medical condition that contributed to his problem. "They are yet to consider my medical reports and once they do it, I am sure there shouldn't be any problem," Ajmal had said. "If one has a medical problem then what can he do? So I am 100% positive and hoping for the best."

It is understood that the PCB had maintained Ajmal had a medical condition following an accident which affected the movement of his elbow when he was previously reported, and that had been accepted by the ICC when his action was cleared then. The ICC's report this time around, under its injury history and anatomical abnormalities section, said he "reports a previous injury [of the elbow], a fracture in 2004", but did not elaborate on how that would affect his action. Separately, the report did note that "the player was not generally hypermobile", hypermobility being a condition in which the body's joints easily move beyond the normal range.