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[CrickFreak]

I play in 2 leagues in New Jersey, saturday and sunday. Most of the leagues in US are run and played by amateurs who play the sport because they love the sport. But some of the clubs have enough money to pay for ex first class/international cricketers.
Some of the regulars are - Neil Mcgarell, Sudesh Dhaniram, Jermaine Lawson etc. but this year we also saw Ashraful, Iliyas Sunny, Xavier Marshall etc. Some of the US internationals who live in New York/New Jersey area also play in our league.

Now about the problem - Lot of teams have raised issue about Jermaine Lawson. He has been banned by ICC due to his controversial action. He still chucks when he plays in our league. The issues being raised are mainly about player's safety. Some of the top order batsmen can still play him but the problem is safety of lesser batsmen namely middle order and lower order batsmen. To add to the problem, the pitches we play on are not maintained by professionals. We roll them at the beginning of the season or undertake any repairs mid-season if required. Bottom line is they are not ideal for that kind of pace bowling. There are some geniunely quick bowlers in the league but you can still play them becasue you know the limit. With Lawson, there is no limit, he is 6'5" strong lad and can throw at tremendous speed.

Now the question - Have you encountered such an issue in your league and how was it dealt with?

In international cricket, the bowler is never stopped from bowling. He only gets reported and a comittee is formed to review the action and then a decision is taken. This process is not possible in our league. So most of the umpires dont call a no ball.

This season one of the umpires got a camera (not sure what it is) and he records every game he officiates. This video from him clearly shows how much the elbow bends - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V2vjIxXi6I

To summarize - question is not if Lawson is a chukker or not but how to deal with such players.

[RoCo Da Pixie]

Firstly it looks like a few of those balls should have been called for a no ball for overstepping.

As for what to do if there is an idea of chucking in the league I play in you need to write to the league and then they will send in officals to watch and specate and report back.

It is very hard to do anything about this sort of thing while we play amateur cricket.

[Kulli]

When the ICC struggle with this club leagues have basically no chance. It's a big issue over here also, but very difficult for umpires to call players, or for any sort of committee to assess people.

[Mattsky]

Some of those deliveries are definitely chucks. He should be shown this video, along with his captain, and he should be asked to work on his action. Until then, other sides should just refuse to play if he's on the teamsheet.
Alternatively, get together with the other skippers in the league, and inform Lawson's club that based on the evidence of this video, Lawson will be no-balled whenever umpires think it appropriate. The more agreement you get, and the more public you make the issue,  the more confident umpires will be to take action. The issue can't then be ignored.

[edge]

If he's banned from bowling by the ICC, shouldn't be a hard case to present that he can't bowl in league cricket! For cases when it's just a normal amateur bowler though, good luck ever getting a league to take action.

[Topgun]

Do they actually ban people in these amateur games?

[smilley792]

When I was 17 I got accused of chucking by the oppo, league appeared at random games, asked me to attend a sports hall for videoing. And was cleared by the league.

Despite changing teams thrice and switching leagues, I never got called again...... Until our forum net at dotball. Cheers guys.


This year one of our bowlers was called for chucking. The umpire stood at square leg and screamed no ball, followed by. He's chucking it, at top of his voice.
Lads 16, seemed to shake him. Both caps and umpires got together to have a word, not entirely sure what was said.
4balls later the umpire screamed no ball and, it's a definite chuck!! At top of his voice.
Lad shouted take me off to skip, skip had word with ump, bowlers end up(head of umps) was adamant this was not the correct way of doing things. And asked if we could bowl him from the other end so he could have a look.
We swapped him ends despite his reluctance. And this ump said he saw nothing wrong with the action he could call a no ball for.

We got a letter from league asking if we could let them know when his next game was as they wanted to view and assess the action.
We told them an u17 game as he's refusing sat cricket.
5 umps went, viewed him and all agreed his action was fine.

He hasn't played a game since though, the episode hit him hard and he doesn't see why he should waste a Saturday to be embarrassed by an umpire(umpire actually got a warning for his behaviour).



Our league say that the ruling should be. If square leg relieves it is a no ball, they get together at the end of the over to discuss.
They then both try to monitor during the game, and discuss with both bowler and captain.
After game discussion with league as to weather more assessment needed.
If more assessment leads to ruling it's a throw, player isn't allowed to bowl until proven its remedied.
When remedied club inform league and they send a third umpire to that game to look.
Unless an obvious throw, they are not meant to call during game.

[Topgun]

WOW

[Stuey]

@smilley792, a real shame if the lad walks away from the game due to some power hungry umpire.

[gerhard303]

He hasn't played a game since though, the episode hit him hard and he doesn't see why he should waste a Saturday to be embarrassed by an umpire(umpire actually got a warning for his behaviour).

Surely he should be encouraged by the fact that he was cleared by the panel of umpires?

[joeljonno]

Surely he should be encouraged by the fact that he was cleared by the panel of umpires?

Generally too late then.  Already lost the hunger for the game if you are like this.

You will see a lot of amateurs using video cameras, phones and similar in the not so distant future when there is someone they are unsure of.  They'll then be sending that to the league for their review.

[Northern monkey]

Ohhh now you've got me started!!!

Played a t20 friendly in oxford last year, half way through some young lad walks on to the ground.
Says he plays for USA !
Ok fair play, I let him take my spot and he played second half for us,, his bowling action was lethal!!
Just a blatant throw!

In our leagues this year, I've faced three chuckers,, two of them have letters from lords stating their actions are legal??
Just can't get my head round it.

[Rob580]

In our leagues this year, I've faced three chuckers,, two of them have letters from lords stating their actions are legal??
Just can't get my head round it.

The issue is, you could go to Lords (or wherever) bowl with a perfectly straight arm, get your certificate, then go back to throwing it. It's essentially never going to be something you can effectively police. 

[Topgun]

Ah very true

[ProCricketer1982]

Same as with sledging.. No one is prepare to stand up against it and county sides now coach it into their players. Glos have a chucker and 2 u17 spinners have in the last year alone, gone from bowling normally to chucking.

If counties aren't going to uphold th laws the amateurs have no chance. Good luck finding a club willing to,take the high moral ground and lose a game and have a league dock them pts