Kolkata Knight Riders, which entered the final of the Oppo Champions League T20 championship on Thursday, suffered a huge blow when its star spinner Sunil Narine was declared ineligible to bowl in the final following a report on his suspected illegal bowling action.
“Narine was reported for a second time in as many matches over a suspected illegal bowling action during Thursday evening’s semi-final game against Hobart Hurricanes here at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium,” a statement issued here said.
“After all video evidence of the match was taken into account, on-field umpires Rod Tucker and S. Ravi along with third umpire Vineet Kulkarni felt that there was a flex action in his elbow beyond the acceptable limit when bowling during the match,” the statement said.
“Under the CLT20 Suspected Illegal Bowling Action policy, if a player receives a report while on the warning list, the player shall be suspended from bowling for the remainder of the tournament and from bowling in any matches organised by the BCCI until such date as he is cleared,” it added. ‘’Narine is suspended from bowling, but may continue to be selected to play in matches, however he will not be entitled to bowl.’’
The team will be advised to send the player to the SRMC (Sri Ramachandra Medical College) for testing as per the testing protocol set by the ICC. SRMC is accredited by the ICC as a testing centre for suspected illegal bowling actions.
Narine was first reported on September 29 during the Kolkata Knight Riders match played against the Dolphins here at the same ground by on-field umpires Anil Chaudhary and Chettithody Shamshuddin along with third umpire Kumar Dharamsena.
