I am not blindly going to defend Ajmal or Vaughan for this. Ajmal is always going to court controvacy with that action and Vaughan is trying to make some kind of media career for himself - sadly along the same lines as Piers Morgan.
All bowlers in the world bend their elbow to some degree. Most, including the likes of Anderson, Johnson etc, will at times bend it beyond the former 10 degree legal delivery limit.
I would like to remind everyone that it is not illegal to bowl with a bent arm (I bowl with one - though it never straightens and I have been cleared twice in my career) However, it is illegal to straighten it further than 15 degrees.
I have no problem with people who have 'strange' actions. No-one would mind if someone bowled with Ajmal's action and it was easy to hit back over the pavilion for 6. Personally, I have been called, but never in any HCPL, Middx or Surrey Champs game, but in a TVCL game. In my view, the difference is I took maybe 1 or 2 wickets a game at top level and blocked up an end. In the TVCL, I take 40+ wickets a season - suddenly the opposition/umpires/spectators think you are doing something naughty. Although my trivial pursuit for glory is at a level Ajmal may never bother himself at again, the situation is relevant. Would people really care if he wasn't taking wickets?
Regardless of whether we think it is a throw, or whether it is not, unless players are submitted for tests to prove conclusively that they do, or do not, throw it - it is very difficult to tell, without state-of-the-art-technology, whether laws have been broken.
Once again, I think this should be seen as an irresponsible bit of reporting by Vaughan - just like his handling of the Trott affair - and leave it at that.
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Topic: Saeed Ajmal (Read 22251 times)