Murali- Record-breaker or rule bender?

Profiles / Paul Moon / 22 October 2007 / 1 Comments

Pablo Luna - Moonlighting for Betfair. Pablo analyses Murali's bowling action and considers whether he should be bowling at all.

Muttiah Muralitharan (a Tamil born 17 April 1972 in Kandy, Sri Lanka) is generally regarded as one of the greatest bowlers ever. He has over 700 Test wickets and 450 ODI wickets and it is widely accepted he will go on to record 1000 Test wickets. He has the highest wicket per match ratio of any bowler. Wisden consider him the best bowler of all time.

I have followed his career closely and cannot give him the credit that those statistics demand. It is said that he has a unique action. I have no doubt that his bowling action is illegal. In short, he is a chucker!

I readily accept he has a congenital defect but that does not mean he should be able to bowl outside of the parameters of the game. As you read this there are youngsters on the subcontinent who have no defect copying his action and in years to come the ICC Panel will arbitrate on a host of players to determine who is legal and who is not. You read it here first!

Murali's bowling action has been a talking point throughout his career and in these politically correct times, he has been accommodated. He has been allowed to throw despite conclusive investigations and the rules have actually been changed to make his off break, top spinner and leg spinner legal.

Most of the time it is shown that he doesn't extend his elbow with his off break, top spin, and leg spinner. In some of them, he's flexing but he does have a huge advantage quite clearly by bowling with a bent arm, straightening his arm at the point of delivery by 10 degrees (sometimes more).

When Murali bowls the doosra however, he struggles to stay within the new guidelines, which allow bowlers to straighten their arms by up to 15 degrees. It used to be less than 5 degrees before he was tested but the rule was changed, or relaxed, to 15 degrees. To bowl the doosra you really have to get your fingers over the top of the ball and the problem for him is to do that he has to extend the elbow. This is his most dangerous delivery and the one batsm3en really struggle with. It is really obvious that during the course of a game his doosra or "wrong un" (moving from leg to off with no change of action) really deteriorates and is clearly unlawful!

Professor Bruce Elliott (ICC) is part of the Human Movement and Exercise Science Department at the University of Western Australia, where the actions of Muttiah Muralitharan have been tested. He originally cleared Murali but had grave concerns over his doosra. (Other bowlers who have copied this delivery have also been reported! They include Johan Botha of South Africa, Shoaib Malik and Shabbir Ahmed of Pakistan and Harbhajan Singh of India).

In matches several umpires have no-balled Murali and he has attracted a lot of attention of match referees. Bishan Bedi, that great Indian off spinner says that he throws the cricket ball like a javelin. There are a multitude of senior cricket officials and international players that sympathise with that view but do not want to make waves in Asia; we all saw what happened to Darrell Hair when he applied the rules fairly against Pakistan.

In the forthcoming series between Sri Lanka and England Murilitharan will be bowling his doosras and it is apparent that the English batsmen cannot detect this delivery until too late. I look forward to seeing how Pietersen deals with him but on these pitches but there is a huge advantage to the home side and this reflects in the betting with Sri Lanka hot favourites at 2.2 with Betfair to win the First Test. Should you fancy England to deal with the doosra, then 4.1 is available with Betfair on England drawing first blood in the series. If England bat first then perhaps the draw at 2.54 with Betfair will attract support.

Unfortunately, I fear and believe that unfairness will win the day!

Comments (1)

1. Anita Gudruht | 01 October 2008

   The oft-quoted congenital defect is irrelevant. In the 20th century, bowlers have not been required to bowl with a straight arm. Many great bowlers have had a "round arm" delivery, i.e. their elbows were bent, just as Murali's appears to be.
   The law required that bowlers not straighten or bend their arm immediately prior to delivery. This is a convoluted way of trying to describe a jerking or throwing action, and the latest research indicates that it is not a good way of determining a chucker.
   You are right, though, that as the law stood, Murali was clearly bending his elbow before and during the delivery. The easing of the amount of bend permitted by the law has changed the game irreparably, and has not addressed the jerking or throwing action which Murali uses.