UWA raises doubts over ICC's recent biomechanics tests
The university's biomechanists express concerns that testing could be carried out by relatively inexperienced staff
While the crackdown on illegal bowling actions by ICC continues, another controversy seems to be in the making. The tough measures initiated by the international body has put it at loggerheads with the University of Western Australia -- an agency that has helped the ICC develop its testing procedures.
The UWA, whom the ICC relied upon for the last 20 years to develop models and protocols to test illegal bowling actions, has raised serious doubts over the reliability of the recent biomechanics tests that suspended several bowlers from the game, according to ESPNcricinfo.
Leading offspinners including Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine, and Al-Amin Hossain are some of the players who have been banned for possessing an illegal action, to date.
As new ICC testing centres have been introduced in Brisbane, Cardiff and Chennai, UWA biomechanists have termed the ICC's approach as "extraordinary", expressing concerns that the testing could be carried out by relatively inexperienced staff with limited training.
UWA had voluntarily withdrawn its testing services to the ICC - the break is believed to have taken place in March this year.
Jacqeline Alderson, an associate professor in biomechanics at UWA, while talking to ESPNcricinfo said they feared that the recent tests may be based on unreliable evidence.
“We have withdrawn our services," she said. "We were initially aggrieved by the ICC leveraging our research without our knowledge or permission. However, that is now compounded by the lack of transparency surrounding the current testing."
The ICC, however, insists that a clean-up of bowling actions is both necessary and justifiable, and that it now has a system in place that is more scientifically advanced than the previous methods.
It says it is utilising experts biomechanists in the world to review its procedures and that the UWA has only been excluded due to the deteriorating relationship between the parties.
"An extensive accreditation procedure and detailed documentation on marker placement has been developed by the ICC and now forms part of the accreditation of Brisbane and Chennai."
On the charge of secrecy, the ICC says that testing protocol has been provided to "a number of institutions"
The belief at the Perth centre, which was for so long the ICC's only resource in the fight against illegal bowling actions, that their methods have been unsatisfactorily adopted and adjusted is also officially rejected by the ICC, which argues "the new protocol is based on research, know-how and available literature".
One of the key areas of concerns is the methodology used to place markers on the bowlers' bodies to determine whether a delivery is illegal.
The UWA team says that the ICC is replicating already existing methods that rely on rolling out "old technology", and lack "vision" with respect to the "holy grail of quantifying illegal actions during match play".
UWA also expressed concerns about the monitoring of Ajmal's action after it had cleared the bowler in a previous assessment in 2009 - including comments it made to Geoff Allardice, the ICC's general manager of cricket, earlier this year.
The ICC, however, does not regard it as appropriate for a testing centre to pass comment on monitoring procedures, which it regards as outside its jurisdiction.
The UWA, whom the ICC relied upon for the last 20 years to develop models and protocols to test illegal bowling actions, has raised serious doubts over the reliability of the recent biomechanics tests that suspended several bowlers from the game, according to ESPNcricinfo.
Leading offspinners including Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine, and Al-Amin Hossain are some of the players who have been banned for possessing an illegal action, to date.
As new ICC testing centres have been introduced in Brisbane, Cardiff and Chennai, UWA biomechanists have termed the ICC's approach as "extraordinary", expressing concerns that the testing could be carried out by relatively inexperienced staff with limited training.
UWA had voluntarily withdrawn its testing services to the ICC - the break is believed to have taken place in March this year.
Jacqeline Alderson, an associate professor in biomechanics at UWA, while talking to ESPNcricinfo said they feared that the recent tests may be based on unreliable evidence.
“We have withdrawn our services," she said. "We were initially aggrieved by the ICC leveraging our research without our knowledge or permission. However, that is now compounded by the lack of transparency surrounding the current testing."
The ICC, however, insists that a clean-up of bowling actions is both necessary and justifiable, and that it now has a system in place that is more scientifically advanced than the previous methods.
It says it is utilising experts biomechanists in the world to review its procedures and that the UWA has only been excluded due to the deteriorating relationship between the parties.
"An extensive accreditation procedure and detailed documentation on marker placement has been developed by the ICC and now forms part of the accreditation of Brisbane and Chennai."
On the charge of secrecy, the ICC says that testing protocol has been provided to "a number of institutions"
The belief at the Perth centre, which was for so long the ICC's only resource in the fight against illegal bowling actions, that their methods have been unsatisfactorily adopted and adjusted is also officially rejected by the ICC, which argues "the new protocol is based on research, know-how and available literature".
One of the key areas of concerns is the methodology used to place markers on the bowlers' bodies to determine whether a delivery is illegal.
The UWA team says that the ICC is replicating already existing methods that rely on rolling out "old technology", and lack "vision" with respect to the "holy grail of quantifying illegal actions during match play".
UWA also expressed concerns about the monitoring of Ajmal's action after it had cleared the bowler in a previous assessment in 2009 - including comments it made to Geoff Allardice, the ICC's general manager of cricket, earlier this year.
The ICC, however, does not regard it as appropriate for a testing centre to pass comment on monitoring procedures, which it regards as outside its jurisdiction.