When a man of few words like Rahul Dravid, someone who does not provide fodder for the controversy mills, remarks on a contentious issue his remarks cannot be ignored. A few days ago he stated that chucking is bad because it ruins the careers of batsmen. It’s a simple point but he hit the nail on the head.
In Indian cricket there are two categories of chuckers — harmful and harmless. Harmful chuckers cause injuries to batsmen while harmless ones don’t. However, the point that Rahul Dravid was making is that by capturing wickets in an illegitimate way, a chucker is making things difficult for the batsmen.
In domestic cricket, especially in the IPL, chuckers have been adding to the variety with suspect actions. Before Dravid took over as mentor of Rajasthan Royals many bowlers with suspect actions were encouraged by the franchise; with their former captain, Shane Warne even praising such bowlers publicly to put the umpires under pressure. Lately, though, the BCCI has decided to crack down.
KKR’s Sunil Narine may feel that he is unfairly targeted for having to constantly undergo tests but the fairness of the game is at stake. However, tests only point out the problem. It is the duty of the player and his board and/or franchise to work on the action with experts. It is also to be noted that Narine has been pulled up by his own board in the past to rectify his action.
Both the performers and the franchises are aware of problems with actions of certain players. However, in order to tilt the results in their favour or due to the high stakes such players are encouraged to continue. It is farcical that with Narine having bowled; including his off-spinners, for eight seasons in the IPL the Action Review Committee (ARC) of the BCCI has only now woken up to his off-spinners being illegitimately delivered?
What is the use of testing the action of a bowler every time an umpire reports it, without a mandatory time set aside for rectification? Rectifying an action takes time and long hours of practice. Besides, ARC clearing bowling actions is redundant as umpires have every right to enforce the law.
It is well known that almost always, bowlers who rectify their action compromise their effectiveness. Former Gujarat off-spinner Mohnish Parmar who made the life of good batsmen miserable in all conditions, used to turn his doosra square. After being allowed to perfect his illegitimate action right from his junior days when he was finally asked to rectify his action at the first-class level, he looked ordinary and is now out of the game.
Age fudgingAll these muddles in administration lead to another issue that is highly prevalent and one that creates a toxic pool at the roots of cricket, the junior level. The issue is that of fudging the age of players. Some boys, like the literary character Peter Pan itself, do not seem to grow up at all with many aging only a year or two in half a decade!
The BCCI had directed local associations to conduct bone tests of players through BCCI contracted hospitals to address the issue. However, players have found loopholes around that procedure. A few years ago, eight of the final eleven of a junior state team were born on the eligibility cut-off date. What a coincidence?
In another case, a player as per the record was nearly 16 four years ago, hasn’t crossed 17! These ‘Peter Pans’ of Indian cricket are denying genuine young performers their fair chance.
Isn’t it time the BCCI hired medico-legal experts to tackle this issue by putting reliable systems in place? Otherwise, we will continue to produce these ‘Boy Bradmans’ much to the detriment of Indian cricket.
