Throwing (cricket)
In the early 1880s there were a number of bowlers who were widely considered to have unfair actions, with the Lancashire pair of Jack Crossland and George Nash coming in for particular criticism.
After playing for Kent against Lancashire in 1885, when he faced the bowling of Crossland and Nash, Lord Harris decided to take action.
Standing 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) tall and 9 stone (130 lb; 57 kg) in weight he took wickets at a prodigious rate in the late 1920s in Queensland club cricket.
He was chosen for Queensland against New South Wales Colts in 1930 and took 6 wickets but the Brisbane Courier's correspondent "Long On" was moved to describe his whipped catapult action as "almost a throw".
Umpire Frank Chester wanted to no-ball the South African Cuan McCarthy for throwing in 1951 but was blocked by the authorities at Lords, Plum Warner commenting diplomatically "These people are our guests".
(Meckiff was also alleged – along with several other Australia bowlers – to be breaking the spirit of the no-ball law by "dragging" – grounding the back foot behind the bowling crease, thus making the delivery legal, but dragging it through so that it was considerably in front of the crease before the front foot landed, thus bowling from illegally close to the batsman.
Elder statesmen on both sides, including Gubby Allen and Don Bradman, resolved to clear the air before Australia's tour of England in 1961.
Remarkably he claimed a hat trick during the test but South Africa lost by an innings, prompting an exhibition match to be staged as the Queen was due to visit the ground.
In more recent times bowlers such as England's James Kirtley, Australia's Brett Lee and Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar and Shabbir Ahmed have come under scrutiny to varying degrees.
From his debut for Sri Lanka he was under scrutiny from umpires due to an unusual hyperextension of his congenitally bent arm during delivery.
Despite initial criticism, the first occasion when his action became a real issue was when Australian umpire Darrell Hair called him for throwing during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, 1995.
Hair publicly stated that he would not hesitate to call Murali for throwing again, given the opportunity and considered his bowling action "diabolical".
During testing at the University of Western Australia several independent witnesses, including former cricketer Bruce Yardley, were present to ensure Muralitharan bowled as he would in match conditions.
[5][6] Since the mid-1990s when Pakistani off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq pioneered the doosra, off spinners who have bowled with a non-classical action that can produce this delivery have routinely been reported and investigated for throwing.
Such bowlers include Harbhajan Singh, Shoaib Malik, Marlon Samuels, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Johan Botha, Shane Shillingford and Moeen Ali.
Saqlain is one of the few bowlers of the doosra whose action has never been called into question, although he was regularly no-balled for the more conventional sin of overstepping the crease.
Testing conducted in the 1990s in England revealed that during a delivery virtually all bowlers flex and extend their arms naturally to some degree as it rotates around the shoulder.
The ICC formed an expert panel comprising biomechanists Professor Bruce Elliott of The University of Western Australia, Dr Marc Portus of the Australian Institute of Sport and Dr Paul Hurrion from the UK who presented during a forum of a special ICC cricket sub-committee for illegal bowling actions in late 2003 in Dubai.
The sub-committee was David Richardson, Angus Fraser, Aravinda De Silva, Michael Holding, Tony Lewis and Tim May.
If the player does not agree with the report, they can seek a hearing from a bowling review group made up of experts appointed by the ICC.
If the review concludes that the player has remedied their action the suspension will be lifted with immediate effect and they can start bowling in international cricket.
In general, although players with suspect actions now tend to be reported for investigations rather than suffering a public trial in front of spectators by being no-balled, umpires still have the right to call bowlers on the field if necessary.
The Australian Test bowler Laurie Nash was once no-balled in such circumstances in the 1930s, with the journalists present opining that he had deliberately thrown the ball.
