KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi should beashamed that instead of supporting Mohammad Hafeez over unfair treatmentmet by the ICC over his bowling action, PCB has issued him the show causenotice.
PCB on Friday issued a show cause notice to Muhammad Hafeez after theall-rounder called into question the International Cricket Council’s (ICC)process for reporting suspect bowling actions.
Hafeez, who was suspended from bowling in international cricket for thethird time last year and was finally cleared to bowl, had raised doubtsabout the process calling it “suspicious”.
A top PCB official had confirmed to *Geo.tv *earliertoday that PCB wouldsend a showcase notice to the all-rounder for his interview. “PCB isissuing show cause notice to Hafeez for his ill-conceived remarks againstICC in an interview to BBC,” the official had said.
The 37-year- old in the interview said: “There are so many thingsinfluencing [who gets called for suspect actions], it has a lot to do withthe power of [some] boards and nobody wants to take them on,” Hafeez toldBBC Urdu. “Mostly there are soft corners and relations between people whichno one wants to spoil. What I say is why not implement the rule and getevery bowler in the world to go through [the testing process]. What’s thedifficulty in that?”
The all-rounder said he was surprised when he found out that the degree offlex in his bowling action was only marginally above the 15-degree limit.
“When match umpires called me [for a suspect bowling action], I went for mytest only to find the flex was recorded up to 16, 17 and 18 degrees,”Hafeez said. “I was surprised: how can anyone with the naked eye see flexfrom 15 to 16, and at times they are not able to call those whose flex is25 and even 30-plus.
“So I have my doubts about this [calling system]. This is suspicious, whyare match referees or on-field umpires not able to see those flexing up to35 but me with 16 degrees?” he questioned.
On April 17, Hafeez underwent a re-assessment of his bowling action at theLoughborough University where it was revealed that the amount of elbowextension in his bowling action was within the 15-degree level of tolerancepermitted under the ICC Illegal Bowling Regulations.