PCB give go-ahead for biomechanics lab

The Pakistan Cricket Board has taken a major step towards tackling the problem of illegal bowling actions, by giving the go-ahead for a new biomechanics laboratory to be set up in Lahore.

Pakistan has been beset by allegations of chucking, from Shoaib Akhtar and his hyper-extensive elbow, to the spinner Shoaib Malik, whose action is currently being examined by the International Cricket Council. Now, the plan is for the PCB to tackle the problem in-house, with a laboratory - the fifth of its kind in the world - to be established at the National Cricket academy at the Gadaffi Stadium.

Pakistan's former captain, Fazal Mahmood, has been appointed as bowling advisor to the PCB's Illegal Bowling Action Commission, with five others named as domestic bowling advisors: the former Test fast bowler, Aqib Javed; two international spinners in Farrukh Zaman and Iqbal Sikander; Khizar Hayat, a Pakistani umpire, and Dr Sohail Saleem, a medical commissioner.

In the short term, the PCB plans to install Quintic 9.03, a biomechanical analysis software that enables 2D analysis of a bowler's action, by filming the players in action and then reducing the video to a stick-figure animation. A specialist in biomechanics, Dr Paul Hurrion, is to fly out to Lahore to install the software and conduct a two-day seminar that aims to instruct and guide the members of the committee.