When there was no place of technology in international cricket, the umpires never dared to call a spade a spade. But with the easy availability of technology these days, the task of umpires has become more confusing, and not easier. These days, the on-field umpires can not think of calling a bowler without referring to the third umpires. And then it is going to be a lengthy procedure and more importantly, the suspect bowler is allowed to play on when the process continues.

And this is what made Shane Warne and the coach of the Rajasthan Royals, Darren Berry play Kamran with confidence, even though the young pacer looks like a chucker from all angles. When Kamran was reported for suspect bowling action, they again played Amit Singh, at the same time putting pressure on the umpires by praising Kamran.

Now, the technology has proved that both of these IPL players are chuckers, but what is the result? While technology provides the evidence against the suspect bowlers, they can not be banned from playing cricket. The ICC norms allow them to play, as there is no ICC regulation to forbid the reported bowlers from playing.

Take for instance, Amit Singh’s case; he had been in the list of suspect action bowlers and was forbidden from the domestic tournaments. Still Rajasthan Royals included him in the team and allowed him play in such a high profile tournament as Indian premier League. Is it not unethical and unfair so far as the other teams are concerned?

The umpire fraternity is however of the opinion that technology has curbed the power of the umpires. When there was no third umpire, no television footage and all that, slight evidences were sufficient for the umpires to call a bowler for suspected action. But technology prevents the umpires to act with confidence. Barring a few exceptional umpires in international cricket such as Darrell Hair, who took up the courage to object to Muralitharan’s bowling action, knowing all along that he would become tremendously unpopular in the Asian countries; few umpires are bold enough to call the bowler. And as a result, third umpire intervention has become a rather a rule, even for the simplest decisions.

As the current trends in international cricket shows: some of the reported bowlers have been continuing with doing what they had been reported for, even after undergoing the rehabilitation process. And this has sparked off the debate whether “Doosra” should be legalized in cricket. While a school of cricket experts brand it as ‘art of variation’, for others increasing the permissible limit to fifteen degrees would only mean giving the bowlers license to chuck.

Technology or no technology, the more orthodox school of cricket experts maintain that a reported bowler should be banned from BCCI conducted tournaments for at least six months. However, the national Cricket Academy lacks the technology, with which it can help the bowlers reported for suspect action correct himself. So what is needed first is an immediate address of the issue by NCA.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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