Rising young Pakistan fast bowler was reported for an illegal action recently in Australia’s Big Bash League and a test back home in Lahore found the pacer breaching the 15 degree limit for his slow bouncer, bouncer, good length and full length deliveries. The PCB, while confirming his withdrawal from international cricket, said that they were very hopeful of rectifying the 21-year-old’s action.
Here is an article from our reader Hammad Ahmad on Hasnain’s ban.
Limited extension in elbow with limited boundaries and promotion of limited versions like T20 and T10 are some of the most worrying areas for cricket literate viewers across the globe. Recent imposition of ban on Pakistan’s pacer Muhammad Hussnain has raised a lot of questions on the future of global cricket as far as fostering of fast bowlers and balance between the bat and ball is concerned. Designing laws to limit the bowlers for bowling in a certain pre- determined style has turn out to be a big injustice and reason for the lack of balance between the opportunities available for batsmen as compared to bowlers.
Promotion of flat tracks in limited overs versions and unfortunately in test cricket was already an alarm for the quality of gentleman’s game but banning the bowlers for anything unorthodox leaving the batsmen with absolute freedom has added fuel to the fire. If banning unorthodox is the solution then batsmen should not go scot-free and all the batsmen with any unorthodox shot or style should be banned too. Banning bowlers for elbow extension and silence of cricket analysts across the globe will gradually take away the glamor from cricket leading to loss of cricket literate viewership. A prompt legislative review is a need of hour in addition to promote cricket across the globe. A sport spreads in new cultures and setups when it is spread and presented with all its freedom and aggression. This requires a clear balance between the two primary variations batting and bowling. Uniform laws with equal impact on bowlers and batsmen in world cricket are inevitable for survival of the game in its original shape.
Disappointment of cricket fans especially the fans having emotional attachment with their favorite pacers and spinners continue to move away from the pool of cricket viewers. Mere focus on promotion of bulk of sixes and fours compromising the glamor of attacking bowling art will leave cricket simply a batsmen’s game where bowlers are slaves to support its continuity.
Here the ex-cricketers and all the cricket boards have got a heavy role to play pushing ICC to revise the laws dealing with limited elbow extension because it is the cricket viewers that bring money into cricket but if they will leave the stadiums then the commercial value of the game will go away as well.