CA to streamline illegal action reporting

Cricket Australia is to review the process for reporting suspect bowling actions in domestic cricket, to better enable cases to be resolved during the short time span of competitions such as the Big Bash League.

The current system requires a player to be "mentioned" on three separate occasions by three different umpires in a single season before an analysis of their action is undertaken. Although there is understood to have been only one case of a bowler's action being mentioned in the 2012-13 season so far, CA operations manager, Sean Cary, said that the reporting system would be looked at.

''It's to tighten the process up so that it can be effective in competitions that run over short periods of time," Cary told The Age. "It's not a crackdown because I don't perceive we have a major problem.

''We have to look at the current procedure because it doesn't allow for the full process to be completed within the period of time that the BBL is actually played … If there is a doubtful action report or mention, then we need a procedure that deals with it there and then, so if there is an effect as a result of that, it doesn't impact the competition.''

According to CA policy, umpires in Australia can "bypass the mentions process" and report a player's action directly for review but they are often reluctant to do so because of the controversy attached to accusations of "chucking". During this year's BBL, Darren Lehmann publically questioned the action of Marlon Samuels. Lehmann was subsequently reprimanded for doing so.

The issue of legitimate bowling actions has provoked recent discussion in Australia. With specific reference to teaching offspinners to bowl the doosra, the national selector, John Inverarity, called it "a question of integrity". The CA review comes in response to reported disquiet among state coaches about actions which exceed the 15-degree limit on elbow extension allowed by the ICC.