Indian Cricket Board President Jagmohan Dalmiya on Tuesday reacted sharply to a Pakistani news report that the BCCI had complained about the bowling action of Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar to the ICC, describing it as toally "baseless" and "false".
Dalmiya expressed surprise over a report carried on the website of leading Pakistan daily 'The News' on Monday that quoted team sources close to the Indian team as saying the "Indians, through their board, had sent a letter to the ICC asking it to once again review the bowling action of Shoaib, who they felt chucked quite a few times during an over, and the batsmen were facing problems in sighting his ball when he bowled short."
Indian team manager in Pakistan, Ratnakar Shetty, also denied the report.
The report also claimed that the Indian team had received information from their Board that the ICC has indicated to it that it would be asking the Pakistan Board to send Shoaib to Australia for another review of his bowling action after the current series.
Shoaib, who is ranked as the world's fastest bowler, was reported for a suspect action in December 1999, 2000 and in February 2001. But he was cleared in 2001 after it was proved that there was nothing wrong with Shoaib's action as he had unusual hyper movements in his body joints including the bowling arm and that at times gave the illusion he was chucking.
{{/usCountry}}Shoaib, who is ranked as the world's fastest bowler, was reported for a suspect action in December 1999, 2000 and in February 2001. But he was cleared in 2001 after it was proved that there was nothing wrong with Shoaib's action as he had unusual hyper movements in his body joints including the bowling arm and that at times gave the illusion he was chucking.
{{/usCountry}}The report further quoted the sources as saying "the Indian camp has been persistent in its views that his action was suspect and wanted the ICC to do something about it specially after they had taken action on (Muttiah) Muralitharan after such a long time."