The ball that sealed India’s sensational win over Pakistan at the Eden Gardens yesterday has just spun the other way for the bowler. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh’s ‘doosra’ that bowled the last Pakistani batsman Danish Kaneria in Kolkata is among those that the ICC said today has been reported for suspect action. Another Harbhajan doosra—the ball that turns away from a right-handed batsman—had claimed the wicket of Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal on that tense fifth day of the second Test. Under the new ICC rules, Harbhajan will be eligible to play the third Test starting in Bangalore on March 24, but the ‘‘disappointed’’ offie will have to undergo independent analysis by an ICC-appointed expert. It’s for the third time that Harbhajan’s action has come under a cloud. And this call comes just 19 days after ICC expert Bruce Elliott had declared in Australia that he was ‘satisfied’ with the star spinner’s action, following a similar call during the Bangladesh series last December. The red flag was raised this time by umpires Darell Hair and Steve Bucknor, third umpire A V Jayaprakash and match referee Chris Broad. Broad, incidentally, was the match referee for the Bangladesh series, too. ICC sources, however, have sought to draw a thin line between ‘satisfied’ and ‘cleared’. ‘‘Firstly, there is nothing in the review process that stops a bowler from being called after he has been reported once. And if you look at the report we gave on Harbhajan, nowhere did we say that his action has been cleared. We used the word satisfied,’’ the sources said. With the Kolkata call, a dubious record has also come Harbhajan’s way. He is now the first bowler to be reported under the new rules that came into effect on March 1, whereby the tolerance levels—the angle up to which bowlers can bend their arms during delivery—was revised to 15 degrees. With the change in rules, the rehabilitation period for Harbhajan will now be three weeks—it was six earlier—and the process will be supervised by the ICC and not the home board. The rehabilitation process, ICC said, would begin within 21 days from the time the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) receives the ICC report. When contacted, BCCI secretary S K Nair said he would not comment on the call till the Board receives the ICC report. In an ICC statement, match referee Broad said Harbhajan’s action while delivering the ‘doosra’ in the second innings ‘‘was found to be bowled with a change’’ in action. ‘‘It was noticeable to the umpires and me that there was an apparent change in action when bowling this delivery in the second innings which prompted the report to be made,” said Broad. Harbhajan said he was ‘‘disappointed’’ at the way his case was being handled, as he had just returned from a corective course in Australia. But he said he was ready to undergo any test to clear his name once again. He was first reported for a suspect action in 1998, but was cleared after a stint under former England spinner Fred Titmus.
