Expert rushes to Brett Lee’s defence

Bruce Mason, manager of the Biomechanics Department at the Canberra-basedAustralian Institute of Sport, said all bowlers would be under suspicion iftheir actions were examined closely enough.

“In raising Brett Lee’s defence, a biomechanical analysis needs to bedone,” Mason said, adding the naked eye or even slow motion replays didn’tclarify the situation.

Mason said modern technology would show up many players.

“I could pull out a whole raft of bowlers and show you that at some stageof some of their deliveries they have an illegal action every bowler isgoing to do that to some degree.

“If you had good quality, high-speed film, you could disqualify a whole lotof fast bowlers.”

Asked if he had seen many bowlers he would describe as “perfect”, Masonsaid: “generally you see faults in everyone.”

Mason said most fast bowlers got into trouble when they tried to extractmore effort than their normal delivery.

In Lee’s case, the two umpires AV Jayaprakash and S Venkataraghavanspecifically criticised Lee’s “effort ball”.

Mason suggested a scientific model should be drawn up which allows allbowlers some freedom of movement, saying a ruling that allows no bending ofthe arm is unworkable.

While Lee was open to question, Mason believed allegations of chucking werebased more on politics than science.

“The situation with Brett Lee is more of a political problem than a sportor biomechanics problem,” Mason said. “I think the fact Brett Lee’s beenso successful in his career to date is why questions have been raised.

“If you’ve got someone knocking over wickets because he’s bowling with alot of speed, he’s a threat. “While people don’t want to say things outloud, there’s a subconscious thing there.

“I don’t think the Indian umpires who raised it said: `we’re going to gethim’ but they may have asked themselves `why is he bowling so fast? he mustbe doing something different, something illegal’.

“They’re not really seeing a bent elbow, they’re seeing an image in theirbrain that tells them something is wrong and they’re interpreting it as abent elbow.”

But Mason said umpires “were no more skilled than anyone else” at making ajudgment on an illegal delivery. “With high-speed camera it takes aboutfour or five hours of looking at a bowler’s action and evaluating it beforewe can decide he’s throwing it.”

Meanwhile, there was unexpected support for Lee from Pakistan cricketmanager Brig Mohammed Nasir, who only recently was forced to defend theaction of Pakistani quick Shoaib Akhtar. Nasir said the inquiry would notmean the end of Lee’s international career.

“In my personal opinion I found nothing wrong with him,” Nasir told ABCRadio here.

“This is one of those things where if the umpires have raised some doubtsor suspicion I’m sure if, at all, some remediation measures are required, itwill be done and Brett Lee will be there for a long, long time to come.”

Special panel to meet on priority
LONDON: World cricket’s special panel which advises on bowlers’ suspectactions is to meet “as a matter of priority” to deal with the case ofAustralia’s Test fast bowler Brett Lee.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Tuesday that Lee’saction would be reviewed by the advisory panel for illegal deliveries,following a report by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) which stemmed fromAustralia’s Test tour of New Zealand last April.

An ICC statement said: “the panel will meet by conference call as a matterof priority well ahead of Australia’s next match on August 16 to enable timefor remedial work if required.”

Australia are playing South Africa in a three-match indoor series inMelbourne in mid-August.

The 12-man panel has former India captain Sunil Gavaskar as chairman andincludes Imran Khan and fellow former fast bowler Michael Holding.