Why Everyone Is Wrong About Muralitharan

Whenever an issue excites both hysterical support and unwavering condemnation in equal measures both sides are usually wrong, while the truth lies somewhere in between. This is undoubtedly true regarding the bowling action of Muralitharan. His supporters will not hear a word against him; his detractors refuse to listen to any reasoned argument which fails to condemn him as a cheat.

Doctors confirm that Muralitharan is unable to fully straighten his arm and I refuse to see how anybody can examine the action of a man bowling with a bent arm at normal speed and determine whether there is any straightening in delivery. Ross Emerson proved this when he called Muralitharan for throwing in a match against England in the 1999 triangular series. The slow motion replay showed that it was a standard Muralitharan deliver and the ICC had already cleared his basic action. Emerson knew this and waited for a delivery that he thought was clearly suspect. Had he believed that all Muralitharan's deliveries were illegal he would have called him immediately, instead of waiting until his second over.

However, slow motion technology is so accurate that if the letter of the law were applied the majority of bowlers would be no-balled out of the game. To counter this the ICC determined that anything up to 5% straightening is acceptable. In May 2004 the ICC took the bold move of stating that Muralitharan's doosra delivery required a straightening of more than 5% and so was illegal. However in November 2004 they backed down and determined that all bowlers should now be allowed a straightening of 15% and Muralitharan's doosra involved only a convenient 14% straightening and so was permissible.

My conclusion is that due to Muralitharan's unique action he can get away with "chucking" the occasional ball without the umpire noticing. Any umpire who does notice will court controversy should he do anything about it and will be made to look a fool if, like Emerson, slow motion television shows him to be wrong.