Reactions to the ICC ban

'Let's get the whole thing analysed' - Healy

Wisden Cricinfo staff

May 13, 2004

The latest ban on Muralitharan's doosra has evoked a number of reactions © Getty Images

Ian Healy, the former Australian wicketkeeper, has claimed that banning Muttiah Muralitharan from bowling his doosra does not go far enough - his entire bowling action should be re-examined.

Healy was disappointed that biomechanical experts at the University of Western Australia focused only on Murali's mystical doosra when they hooked him up to their computers. "It's a bit of a shame," said Healy. "The public wants to know how the rest of his action stands up. Let's get the whole thing analysed. If I was Murali, I would want that."

Healy, who was in Zimbabwe commentating on last week's first Test against Sri Lanka, also called for any testing of Murali to be conducted in a match situation instead of a laboratory. "It should all be done from live action in the pressure of a game," he told The Australian newspaper.

Meanwhile Bruce Elliott, the Perth-based biomechanist who investigated Murali's doosra, said that Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar and various other front-line bowlers also routinely breached the ICC's new five-degree arm-extension rule.

"You look at Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee and they have hyperextension in the joints, which is a special occurrence," said Elliott. "I guarantee Shoaib extends more than ten degrees on some deliveries because of it, and Brett could well too."

But Elliott said the law, not Shoaib or Lee, should be tinkered with. He said the five-degree rule should be trebled to accommodate bowlers with their physical characteristics.

The recently sacked Zimbabwe captain, Heath Streak, said that the ICC, having judged Murali's doosra to be illegal, should now strip him of all Test wickets he has taken with the ball, which is bowled with an offbreak action but spins like a whopping legbreak. But the Wisden editor Matthew Engel disagreed. He told the Melbourne Age newspaper: "Chuckers have been part of the game since overarm bowling began. Only when a bowler is no-balled, then it is considered illegal. You can't retrospectively change the records, going through each dismissal to see if it was taken with the doosra."

Australian players reacted sympathetically to Murali's latest setback. Adam Gilchrist, who has previously landed himself in hot water for pontificating on Murali's action, said: "I think he is a great exponent of what he does. I think he is talented enough and resilient enough to redefine the delivery or develop something else."

Ricky Ponting suggested Murali's action had grown more ragged of late. "It might have got worse over the last couple of months. He certainly hasn't taken all his wickets with that delivery."

Bishan Bedi, the former Indian spinner, has always been very vocal in his views regarding Murali. He told the Indian Express, "I have never seen Murali bowl. Bowling is an art. Chucking is not. And why just the 'doosra', even his 'pehla' [the offspinner] is not genuine."

Bedi also felt that the methods used to test Murali's bowling action were ineffective. "Why are they [ICC] resorting to geometrical methods to assess bowling actions of cricketers. The field umpires must decide with their human eyes. You can't decide things with the help of protractors."

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Stories

Murali told not to bowl the doosra

Players/Umpires

Ian Healy

Muttiah Muralitharan

Series/Tournaments

Sri Lanka tour of Zimbabwe

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Australia

Sri Lanka