Shabbir rework his action with Woolmer

Shabbir Ahmed, the Pakistan fast bowler, has begun remodeling his suspect bowling action under the supervision of Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, in Lahore. Saleem Altaf, the PCB director of cricket operations, said he was unaware of any immediate plans to send Shabbir to Australia to work on his action.

"I've not met the chairman for a while and this plan should be finalised later on," Altaf told The News. Shabbir, who has been suspended by the ICC from domestic and international cricket for an indefinite period, was called for the third time in Barbados during the tour of West Indies in May, and later tests conducted by an ICC biomechanic expert in London confirmed that his elbow exceeded the 15-degree ICC limit.

"It's not going to be easy since he is 29 years old and has become used to his action," Altaf added. "I also feel that perhaps because of his knee injury problem he has been lacking a bit in his fitness and after long spells struggles to get the elbow extension right."

Altaf said that Shabbir was also given the option of choosing from among Michael Holding, Sarfraz Nawaz and Daryl Foster, the Australian bowling coach. "He has not got back on which of these gentlemen he would like to seek advice from; but for the moment since Woolmer is the senior team's coach he has started working on his [Shabbir's] bowling action and is trying to improve things.

"But we've the option of seeking specialist help from the ICC and from any of these [mentioned] former bowlers and even sending him to Australia if things don't work out. But yes, there has been a bit of a delay in sorting out this matter."