A view from midwicket: The menace of the bent elbow.

By MU Haq

What a catastrophic! In the last domestic season 29 bowlers representing different teams were reported for illegal (or suspect) actions. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken serious note of this and a regulation to ban bowlers with suspect actions with a view to eradicate the menace of the bent elbow is on the anvil. Mind you, there are many pleasurable ways off-field to bend elbows, but for bowlers to do so is strictly a ‘no-no’! For Pakistan it has been a source of considerable embarrassment at the international level to have a number of bowlers reported for suspect actions in recent times.

To control the menace of ‘chucking’, it is under active consideration to introduce a legislation, effective from the next domestic season, under which bowlers with suspect actions would face an instant ban from playing in various levels of domestic cricket and given a specified period in which to correct their actions, no doubt under the tutelage of PCB-nominated coaches.

The re-introduction of Grade II tournaments will help to weed out bowlers who need correction and thus disqualify them from entering first class cricket until their actions have passed muster.

What is the cause of this profusion of chuckers? The answer: street and maiden cricket, played with a taped tennis ball, which occasionally throws up the add bowler or batsman into organised (club) cricket. This form of the game attracts hundreds of thousands of young (and not so young!) people and is the source of entertainment to players and spectators. The taped tennis ball is the cassus belli! In order to convert the innocuous tennis ball into a high velocity projectile, bowlers are not averse to bending their elbows and those who graduate, without the benefit of proper coaching, to a more serious level, regrettably carry the habit forward. Is it any surprise therefore that in the last domestic season 29 bowlers were penalised…….perhaps more than collectively in all the other spheres of first cricket activity!

Street and maiden cricket does not provide a good grounding to batsmen either. Light weight and extra broad bats are used which encourage batsmen to play unorthodox strokes that by and large, make them unfit for serious cricket. This coupled with the demands of one-day limited overs cricket cause batsmen to develop faulty techniques. There are more batsmen today in Test and first class cricket who are out playing away from the body or employing the dreaded reverse sweep.

Am I suggesting that we do away with taped ball cricket or the one-day game? Certainly not! One provides entertainment to millions and the other fills the coffers and, though grudgingly tolerated by the purist, one can envisage the longer format in fancy dress, under lights and with a white ball in the not too distant future. This would be in keeping with the revolutionary steps that have changed a fairly simple and most enjoyable into a very complexed one! Anyway, we must keep up with the times and learn to grin and bear it.

On a happier note, the re-introduction of Grade II tournaments is the right step to the development of the game in Pakistan. Amongst other things, this format will provide a stepping stone from club cricket to the first class game. A transition that will benefit players and it will certainly check the advent of the chucker.


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In defense of street cricket, it encourages you to bat straight and hit along the ground because if you don't than the ball will land in one of the surrounding houses and you'll be out!

Junaid Gunja Zia better find another way to use his grand chucking talents...

Ask Kabir000 for a way to fix the problem. He's an expert on this issue

haha

What a catastrophic piece of grammar!

What does the author mean by:

"Mind you, there are many pleasurable ways off-field to bend elbows, but for bowlers to do so is strictly a ‘no-no’!"

I don't want to meet the author of this article in a dark alley!

Poor guy, he shouldn't have messed around with Big Mac.

Yeah, you'd enjoy the elbow bending much more if the alley was brightly lit I'm sure.

sounds like you are an expert on elbow bending in dark/lit alleys Big Mac?!?!

The author makes a very good point here. It is probably common in almost all countries in the world where youngsters when they first take up the game as pace bowlers just try to bowl as fast as they can.

However this problem is more common in Pakistan, a country that has such a rich heritage of fast bowling and the "respect" that you will undoubtedly earn if you can bowl at frightening pace, even if it means your action is illegal or you are inaccurate provides such a huge incentive for budding cricketers desperate to get noticed.

However the problem also lies with spin bowlers, especially those that were seen in the recent 20/20 tournament. I, myself had doubts about the bowling action of at least one bowler.