ICC confirms to PCB that no bowler is ever ‘cleared for life'

The International Cricket Council today clarified the situation in relation to the bowling action of Shoaib Malik by advising the Pakistan Cricket Board that no bowler can be `cleared without inhibition' after addressing concerns with their bowling action.

ICC General Manager - Cricket, David Richardson, has written to the PCB confirming that match officials had noted a considerable improvement in Mr Malik's bowling action in Pakistan's recent tour of India, as confirmed by the PCB's own biomechanical report that it recently commissioned from South Africa.

"We are pleased to note that Shoaib appears to have made improvements to his action and that he was recorded as bowling within the levels of tolerance of elbow extension as laid down in the ICC regulations by the biomechanical research commissioned by the PCB," said Mr Richardson in the letter.

"This seems to confirm what the match officials reported to us following his bowling during the recent ODI series in India, where they said that he was bowling with a much smoother action."

In his letter Mr Richardson added that this current improvement provided no guarantee against Mr Malik being reported again in the future should his action deteriorate.

"There can be no guarantee that he will not be reported again should his action deteriorate.

"As regards the request that Shoaib be given ICC clearance to bowl without inhibition in the future, I would like to clarify the position as follows:

"The effect of the report from the biomechanical expert cannot be to clear the bowler to bowl without limitation in the future. This would obviously not make sense as a bowler could then, once cleared, simply revert to old bad habits.

"As with all bowlers, whenever Shoaib bowls in a match in the future, his action will be under the scrutiny of the match officials. According to ICC regulations they will use the naked eye to determine whether his action complies with the Laws. You will recall that the degree of permitted elbow extension is 15 degrees and that this level of tolerance was set at the point at which such elbow extension will begin to become noticeable to the naked eye. Accordingly, any degree of extension which is visible to the naked eye must and will be reported.

"Shoaib has proven himself a fantastic young cricketer and we are hopeful that he will continue to work on his action to ensure that the improvements that have taken place become permanent."