Hafeez’s bowling action to be reassessed in April

All-rounder barred from bowling in international cricket since November.

KARACHI: All-rounder Muhammad Hafeez, who was suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for his illegal bowling action, will undergo reassessment on April 9 in Chennai, India.

The 33-year-old was expected to undergo official testing before the start of the World Cup in Sydney, but a hamstring injury forced him to miss the test and the rest of the tournament as he was sent back by the touring selection committee and was replaced by Nasir Jamshed.

“On the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) request for retesting Hafeez’s bowling action, the ICC has set April 9, 2015 as the date and Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai, India as the venue,” read PCB’s official press release.

During the first Test between Pakistan and New Zealand in the UAE last year, Hafeez was reported for suspect bowling action by the umpires and was put through an independent biomechanical analysis at the National Cricket Performance Center in Loughborough on November 24, 2014.

The test concluded that Hafeez’s elbow extension exceeded the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted by the ICC regulations and was thus declared illegal.

Consequently, Hafeez was suspended from bowling in international cricket and has since been working with PCB’s panel of experts to remodel his bowling action to bring his elbow extension within the permissible limits.

Pakistan’s spin-bowling consultant Mushtaq Ahmed and National Cricket Academy head coach Muhammad Akram have worked extensively with Hafeez to modify his action.

Likewise, Javeria Wadood, a member of Pakistan’s women cricket team, was also suspended for illegal bowling action in July 2010 after an independent analysis, conducted at the University of Western Australia, confirmed that her action was beyond the permissible limits.

She will also get her retesting done on the same date to judge whether the action has been remodeled successfully.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2015.

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