ICC no-balls Saeed Ajmal

Ajmal had been reported for a suspect action after the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test at Galle last month. It was in fact the second occasion in his career that it had come under the scanner. In 2009, it was the legality of his doosra — the mighty wrong ‘un — that had been questioned. But it had been cleared within a month. This time around, however, the analysis performed at the NCC had calamitous consequences as far as Ajmal was concerned.

“The analysis revealed that all his deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations,” the ICC press release said.

Statistically, Ajmal has been the most successful bowler in world cricket in the last few years. With 284 wickets at 22.72 in 121 matches across all three formats, he is well ahead of the pack. Even Dale Steyn is around 60 scalps behind him. To say that he’s been Pakistan’s strike weapon over the last three years would be an understatement, considering he’s got more victims than Junaid Khan and Umar Gul — the two behind him in Pakistan’s wicket-takers’ list since 2011 — put together.

The ICC press release did offer Ajmal a mild ray of hope, revealing that he could apply for a reassessment of the analysis after he’s modified his bowling action. And with the 2015 World Cup less than six months to go, a miffed Pakistan Cricket Board wasted no time in expressing its views regarding an appeal.

“The PCB has referred the matter to its recently-formed Illegal Bowling Action Committee, which will consider the matter and revert with their views and/or recommendations and the Board shall thereafter decide what action to take,” Shaharyar Khan, the board president, said in a statement. It was learnt that former fast bowler and bowling coach Mohammad Akram, spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed and senior umpire Aleem Dar would be part of this committee.

Ajmal himself cited a medical condition as his defense, a natural bend in his arm due to an accident, to get the suspension reversed whenever the PCB appeals the ICC’s verdict. “I am positive about this and not worried because I believe I can make the World Cup. They are yet to consider my medical reports and once they do it I am sure there shouldn’t be any problem. If one has a medical problem then what can he do? So I am 100 percent positive and hoping for the best,” Ajmal said.

The PCB, though, is aware that the suspension could turn into a year-long ban if the appeal ends up being unsuccessful according to the ICC’s ‘Regulations for the Review of Bowlers Reported with Suspected Illegal Bowling Actions’. But at a press conference earlier in the day, Khan insisted that the board would go ahead with the appeal.

“An appeal obviously will benefit us because there is the chance that he may be cleared and get back straight away,” he said. “Otherwise if the appeal is unsuccessful we are wary of the one-year ban imposed on him, but then again he can remodel his action within the period and return to cricket. We have two weeks to lodge an appeal.”

But not everyone in Pakistan agreed with the president’s views, especially his point of there being able replacements for Ajmal. Former skipper Rashid Latif was one of them. “The sad part is that we haven’t tried any other specialist off-spinner in international matches and now our World Cup plans are severely dented. Pakistan bowling is finished without Ajmal. I had doubts for the last few months because the way he bowls it’s hard to get away with in Test matches,” Latif was quoted as saying by the Cricket Australia website.

Tainted history

If the appeal were to go sour for Ajmal, he would become the second Pakistani after pacer Shabbir Ahmed, in 2005, to be banned for a period of 12 months after being reported to the ICC twice in a year’s time. Pakistan have had a history of bowlers whose actions have come under critical scrutiny. The others to have been reported in the past, apart from Shabbir, include Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez and Riaz Afridi.

Former leg-spinner Abdul Qadir, however, called the Ajmal suspension a conspiracy, stating that the ICC was biased against players from his country. “Only our players are targeted. When we mastered the art of reverse swing they said it is cheating now everybody is doing it,” he said.

Earlier this year, many eyebrows were raised over Ajmal’s action as he ran through batting line-ups in county cricket and finished with 63 wickets at 16.47 for Worcestershire. Former England captain Michael Vaughan had led the way by tweeting an image of Ajmal in his delivery stride, stating “You are allowed 15 degrees of flex in your delivery swing…. #justsaying”. Stuart Broad had then created a furore by replying to the tweet with: “This has to be a fake photo?! Bowlers can bowl very differently in a lab while being tested compared to needing wickets in the middle.”