PCB mulling options after Ajmal ban

Hours after the PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan said the board would appeal the ban on Saeed Ajmal to an ICC-appointed Bowling Review Group (BRG), the PCB has backtracked from that position and said it was "contemplating its future course of action and weighing all options."

"The PCB has referred the matter to its recently-formed Illegal Bowling Action Committee, which will consider the matter and revert with their views and/or recommendations and the Board shall thereafter decide what action to take", Shaharyar said in a PCB statement.

The ICC rules allow the PCB 14 days from the receipt of the report on Ajmal's action to file an appeal. The BRG shall comprise the following persons: a current member of the ICC Code of Conduct Commission (in the Chair and with the casting vote only), a current ICC referee, an ex-international player, an ex-international umpire and a human movement specialist. The ICC General Manager - Cricket shall be an ex-officio member of the BRG.

Earlier today, soon after Ajmal was banned from bowling in international cricket after an independent analysis at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane found all his deliveries to be illegal, the PCB had seemed more certain of its intention to appeal.

Though the PCB was aware that an unsuccessful appeal could lead to Ajmal being banned from bowling in international cricket for a period of time, it said at the time, that it would appeal in order to understand the angles from which Ajmal's action had been analysed. It is understood that the board maintained Ajmal had a medical condition following an accident that affected the movement of his elbow and that had been accepted by the ICC when his action was cleared previously.

"Our experts understood that it is the doosra that may be suspected but that proved wrong because his entire action was called illegal," Shaharyar had said at a press conference earlier in the day. "So that's a concern for us but we are going to appeal because we want to understand if the ICC has covered all the angles or not. An appeal obviously will benefit us because there is the chance that he may be cleared and get back straight away.

"Otherwise if the appeal is unsuccessful we are wary of the one-year ban imposed on him, but then again he can remodel his action within the period and return to cricket. We have two weeks to lodge an appeal. We have to face this with courage and go through it without panicking. We have bowlers who can fill in for Ajmal and won't let the team miss him."

This was the second instance of Ajmal being reported for a suspect action. In April 2009, the bowler had been reported while bowling the doosra, and was cleared the following month.