Dubai stages summit meeting on suspect bowling actions

An ICC summit meeting on throwing, involving five former players and the world's leading experts on biomechanics, will convene on October 25 and 26 in Dubai to review the current regulations after the completion of in-depth research into one of the game's most emotive topics.

The five former players - Angus Fraser, Michael Holding, Tim May, Aravinda de Silva and Tony Lewis - will probe into research and make recommendations to the ICC Cricket Committee, chaired by Sunil Gavaskar, which is due to meet on November 9 and 10.

The sub-committee is expected to conclude that the ICC's current tolerance levels should be increased after laboratory and match analysis has shown that a considerable number of international bowlers are presently exceeding the permitted levels of arm-bend.

The ICC's current tolerance levels for arm-straightening permit spinners to bend the albow by five degrees, and fast bowlers ten degrees. The tolerance levels were introduced in 2002 after scientific research indicated that the vast majority of bowlers broke the game's rigid throwing law.

The highest-profile casualty of the current system is Muttiah Muralitharan, who was stopped from using his doosra - a disguised legbreak delivered from the back of his hand - after laboratory research indicated that his arm bent by some 14 degrees when he delivered it.

This was later reduced to ten degrees after remedial action at the University of Western Australia, but Muralitharan still exceeded the ICC's tolerance levels. Muralitharan's arm straightens by an average of three degrees when he bowls his stock offbreak.

But preliminary results from the latest research completed by Paul Hurrion, a UK-based sports scientist, during the ICC Champions Trophy - where video footage of the world's leading bowlers were recorded and analysed by super-speed cameras - indicate that Muralitharan's arm-bend is moderate in comparison to some bowlers.

The conclusions of a secret report conducted for Cricket Australia by Dr Marc Porter, who analysed top-level fast bowlers from five countries in competitive match conditions over an 18-month period leading up to March 2003, revealed that 14 of the 34 deliveries analysed exceeded the ICC's ten-degree tolerance limit.

Further research carried out in New Zealand on spinners and research by Bruce Elliott from the University of Western Australia has also revealed the extent of the rule-breaking under the present system, and the scientists are expected to recommend that tolerance levels be lifted immediately.

Scientists at the meeting will also debate the theory behind the ICC's sliding tolerance levels on the basis of ball speed. The University of Western Australia has argued before that this may discriminate against spinners, such as Muralitharan, who have a similar arm speed to faster bowlers.

Cricket sources are predicting the adoption of a flat-rate 15-degree level of bending for all bowlers, which will allow Murali to continue using the doosra when he returns to international cricket at the end of the year.

The decision of the ICC Cricket Committee will be ratified by the executive board in a telephone conference in late November or early December.

However, although Muralitharan is set to be cleared, the controversy is unlikely to blow away completely, because some other high-profile international bowlers would, according to the latest research which has a five-degree error margin, also exceed the new 15-degree tolerance level.