Shoaib Akhtar, whenever he bowls is the topic of discussion for all the cricket viewers all over the world. His deadly run up, his long falling hair, his fast bowling and his suspect action has always been a topic of debate.
In this review I would like to add my opinion on whether this so called Rawalpindi chucks or not. Like most of us know, Shoaib was asked to bowl under supervision of some experts in Australia and they cleared him of chucking. They all decided that his bowling action was legit and he is allowed to bowl. I believe its a stupid way of deciding whether a bowler chucks or not because it should be completely upto the ground empire.
The problem is that Shoaib doesn’t chucks every single delivey that he bowls, but he definately chucks one or two every over in order to get the extra pace or bounce. Now those who have seen him bowl and get to watch all the replays, must have noticed that in slow motion his arm would seem slightly disfigured in some of the deliveries. Notice I said some of his deliveries. I remember watching a game where Boycott was the commentator. They were showing all six bowls bowled by him in stills and in one of those stills his elbow was clearly bent. And that was the bowl that bounced really high and had Jaques Kallis out caught behind.
Shoaib definately can bowl with his arm straight, but when his bowling is not bothering the batsman too much, he tries to put pressure on the batsman by adding extra pace to his bowling by benting the elbow.
Now, if the leg umpire pays close attention to it, he can definately tell whether the bowler chucked or not. But unfortunately ICC has its own way of decision making. They would invite him to a cricket academy in Australia where Shoaib knowing that his action is being observed would bowl with straight arm, get his action cleared and then he would cheat again in an actual game.
I can guarantee you here that Shoaid would be caught chucking again in this world cup. He loves to get wickets, and he loves to win, and he would do whatever it takes to get a batsman out. So, I would request the ICC to leave it to the leg umpire to decide whether a delivery was chucked or not in order to maintain the reputation of fair cricket.
Criticism, Comments Welcome
Jatt Sharabi