ICC's reaction to illegal actions too late - Davison

The ICC has been late in penalising bowlers with illegal actions and as a result many upcoming cricketers who have grown up emulating their heroes might be at risk as well, according to John Davison, a Cricket Australia spin coach.

"I was in Sri Lanka a couple of months ago and 90 per cent of the bowlers over there bowl spin," Davison told The Age. "I reckon 90 per cent of kids coming through would have what I would call an illegal action.

"There's going to be a generation of cricketers in the subcontinent who are going to struggle to bowl with a legal action. These kids have grown up copying their heroes and now it's going to come back to haunt them.

"You look at most international spinners going around at the moment and the majority are definitely what you would call suspect, and kids copy what international guys are doing.

Davison said the impact might be lesser in Australia thanks to their decision not to impose the doosra on conventional spinners.

"It's something the ICC probably let go on for too long, but I suppose it's good in terms of the stance we took, not that we wouldn't coach it, but we wouldn't try to turn traditional bowlers into doosra bowlers. It would have been much better [globally] if there had been a stance 20 years ago."

The ICC has banned Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal from bowling and a subsequent report said the flex of his elbow was over twice the approved limit. Sunil Narine was reported by the umpires in the Champions League T20 for his quicker ball. Mohammad Hafeez's action was also deemed suspect during the tournament. Though being reported in the CLT20 has no bearing in international cricket, it does mean three of the world's top spinners are under a cloud of uncertainty.