Indian doc’s hand in Murali’s elbow

The idea, he said, was to demonstrate that flexion plays no part in imparting spin when he bowls either the doosra or the orthodox off-breaks. ‘‘This brace — lightweight, so as to prevent any injury — runs from the middle of the upper arm to the middle of the lower arm and restricts the elbow movement.’’

And it seems to be working; Murali — who skipped Sri Lanka’s tour of Australia — had one successful demonstration at Shenley Cricket Centre, near London, last week. Dhillon — an expert on sports injury management — was approached in early June by Murali’s manager Kushil Gunasekara and an aide to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Rajapakse. The brief was to ‘‘somehow clear Murali’s name by correcting his action’’, Dhillon (44) said.

The idea to create a brace, he says, came from Colombo journalist Malinda Wijasinghe. ‘‘It was a first for me too. Malinda told us of the case of CB Fry, the multi-talented Englishman of the early 20th century, who faced a problem similar to Murali’s. Fry, accused of chucking, apparently bowled with a brace for a couple of Tests and cleared his name.’’

This idea appealed to Murali, and he agreed to try it out despite being told that it was not very scientific. However, the first problem arose when the brace didn’t fit Murali’s elbow. ‘‘Usually you get these braces off the shelf but with Murali we had a problem. His elbow is bent and the brace would not go in.’’ So Dhillon spent a week working on a special brace made of heated plastic which would be moulded to suit Murali.

The initial results have pleased Dhillon, who is convinced of Murali’s innocence. ‘‘It is an optical illusion that he bends his elbow too much. The elbow is the fallout of a birth defect so you cannot do anything about it. It is just like the letter Z on a computer, it could be a straight line to some when viewed from certain angles.’’