ICC defends its drive against chucking

Seeking to address doubts raised by the University of Western Australia (UWA), the ICC on Saturday defended its recent drive against chucking and its processes of identifying, testing bowlers with suspect actions.

UWA was formerly the sole biomechanical testing centre for bowling actions and it has raised doubts over the reliability of the tests that have led to several players being banned from bowling in international cricket.

“Judging by the results of the testing, their (the Cricket Committee) concerns have been vindicated,” the ICC said in a statement. The apex cricket body also rejected “any suggestion that bowlers are being targeted depending on which region they come from” and said that the “concerns of umpires relate solely to the bowling action of the player”.

Following recommendations made by its Cricket Committee in June, the ICC encouraged umpires to report suspect actions with greater confidence. After that five bowlers — Kane Williamson, Sachithra Senanayake, Saeed Ajmal, Prosper Utseya and Sohag Gazi — have been reported, tested and subsequently banned from bowling in international cricket.

The ICC backed the accuracy and consistency of the procedures used during the testing of these bowlers. “The ICC is confident that the standardised protocol, quality control procedures and extensive training that has been undertaken with staff at the accredited facilities will allow this level of consistency to be maintained.”

Reacting to UWA’s concerns about the use of two-dimensional match footage to determine whether bowlers are bowling with the same action while undergoing testing, the ICC said: “Prior to testing, the ICC reminds the bowlers that in order for the test to be valid they must replicate the action displayed in the match footage obtained from the spells cited by the umpires in their report.

“During the tests, bowlers are provided with comparative high speed video feedback and if a bowler appears to be using a different action during the test, they are encouraged to replicate their match action. The ICC makes no apology for this.”