By Subhramani Naidu
Sunil Narine Bowling Action should be Reinstated: An Appeal to ICC
Sunil Narine, with his spiky hairstyle, first grabbed attention when he earned a call-up to the Trinidad & Tobago Squad by bagging all 10 wickets in a trial match in 2009. Despite being a full-time right-arm off-spin bowler, Sunil Narine is also an aggressive left-handed batsman. The cricketer also played in the U-19 cricket team for West Indies and made his debut in first-class cricket against the Leeward Islands. He played his debut one day international (ODI) cricket match in 2011 and his debut test match in 2012.
Enchanted by the bowler’s prowess, he was picked to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2012, by the Kolkata Knight Riders. He was bought by the team at the price point of USD 700,000. And rightly so, he became the chief architect of the titles won by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2012 and 2014. This show of immense talent caused Sunil Narine to win the title of Man of the Tournament for IPL in 2012. Kolkata Knight Riders have retained him as one of their core members, ever since.
Sunil Narine came to be known as a frugal bowler in twenty-20 (T20) cricket matches, where bowlers are usually thrashed for long sixes and quick fours. The right-arm off-spinner once conceded fewer runs compared to the balls he bowled: A total of 24 balls with 21 dot balls, in the Caribbean Premier League 2014. Sunil Narine also became the first bowler in the history of T20 cricket, to accomplish the behemoth task of bowling a maiden in a super over.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2016 announced that Sunil Narine has topped the ICC ODI rankings for bowlers. Sunil Narine impressed the entire world with his magical bowling. So much so that, he named in World ODI XI teams drafted by both Cricinfo and ICC.
“He’s (Sunil Narine) is an integral part of Kolkata Knight Riders., and he’ll always be so. Even if he bowls a straight ball, he will be an asset for us and will always remain an asset. That’s the confidence we have on Sunil” – Gautam Gambhir
“Each time, the ball turned in exactly the opposite direction. I just don’t know what he bowls. I think he invents a new ball just for me” – Jacques Kallis, when trying to tackle Sunil Narine’s bowling from a better corner: the crease at the opposite end.
It is the mystery of bowlers like Sunil Narine that keeps us engaged. The seductive charm of these bowlers will never disappear. Such bowlers often prove to be both deadly and duplicitous.
ICC Ban
Sunil Narine has earned the tag of being a “mystery bowler”, owing to his disguised variations in bowling. The right-arm off-spinner came under the scanner of ICC for his bowling action, which was judged to be illegal. The ICC banned him from playing international cricket. An independent assessment conducted on the Trinidadian bowler concluded that his arm bent beyond the permissible limit of 15 degrees for all variations of his bowling.
History of ICC against spin bowling
Saeed Ajmal, the former Pakistani spinner, used to cause batsmen to tremble when he was the foremost bowler for the Pakistan national cricket team. After his ban, the lethal spinner commented that he was being banned because he was a Pakistani.
The ICC had also banned Muttiah Muralitharan from playing test matches, owing to his bowling action while attempting the ‘doosra’. Bowling a ‘doosra’ often causes the arm to bend more than the permissible limit. Muttiah Muralitharan went to the University of Western Australia for remedial work on his bowling action. The remedial work causes him to reduce his arms bend to 10 degrees, which was the maximum permissible limit for non-spinners.
Why ICC takes such decisions?
It primarily has to do with cricket boards’ composition; they come from a varied background without core in cricket. They may bring revenue to the game but reduce the overall essence of the gentleman’s game.
Another factor seems to be the understanding of spin. Cricket playing nations with white citizens specialize in swing bowling due to climatic conditions, whereas spin is perfectly suited to the Indian subcontinent on dusty tracks in hot weather. Hence, there is a lack of understanding of spin bowling among technical staff at the ICC.
ICC goes by the technical textbook decision of 15 degrees bend, but it fails to consider that spinners require extra force to push the ball (chucking) to hurry the batsman into playing a shot. Without that extra force and the ball moving slowly through the air, it results in plenty of time for the batsman to pre-mediate his shot selection. This makes spinners a sitting duck to hit as per the batsman’s wish. For the game to be competitive, spinners are required to hold their edge. However, it seems that the ICC intends to make this game favorable for batsmen by shortening the boundary, increasing the size of the ball, and allowing more power play overs. For quality spin to survive and thrive, the ICC must allow some leeway to spinners in arm bending.
Surprisingly, a spin bowler is being banned for chucking where maximum speed is 120 km/hr, whereas fast bowlers with suspicious actions like Shoaib Akhtar have thrown a beamer at a speed of 150 km/hr on batsman’s head; beamer is nothing but an attempt to murder. Bowlers bowling beamers get away with a simple warning. Spinners can never bowl beamers due to short run-up and control over release even with bending arms.
Cricket playing nations with white citizens have traditionally struggled against spin, and they are a total loss when they come up against a magician like Sunil Narine. Even Indians and Pakistanis, who are supposedly excellent players of spin, are bowled out like a house of cards against Sunil Narine this was conveyed to Prittle Prattle News.
So the question arises if it is the ICC’s lack of understanding of spin or well thought out systematic plan to suppress superior talent just because of sheer domination over others.
ICC, we request you to reinstate Sunil Narine’s bowling action, or talent such as this might wither off. And this in itself might lead to the disruption of the international cricket system as we know it to convey Subhramani Naidu to Prittle Prattle News.
