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Harbhajan's action to be assessed
The off-spinner is expected to become the first bowler in elite cricket to benefit from a relaxation of rules on chucking.
Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is expected to become the first bowler in elite cricket to benefit from a relaxation of rules on chucking, an Australian bio-mechanics expert said on Sunday.
The new International Cricket Council (ICC) rule, which comes into effect on March 1, allows bowlers to bend their elbows by up to 15 degrees.
Harbhajan was reported for a suspect bowling action late last year and has been assessed by expert Bruce Elliott of the University of Western Australia, who supervised a high-speed camera test on the cricketer in Perth last Thursday.
Elliott said his report to the ICC and the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Harbhajan would be based on the new ICC rule, which will deem almost all modern bowling actions legal.
This would be of benefit to Harbhajan, who was reported by English match referee Chris Broad during last December's Test series in Bangladesh for his "doosra", a delivery which turns away from the right-handers instead of coming into them like a normal off-break.
"I am assuming the reference to angles will be under the new (ICC) regulations," Elliott told the Sun-Herald newspaper. "That's the way I will write the report."
The 24-year-old spinner, with 189 wickets in 43 Tests, had been given until February 18 to correct his action ahead of India's home Test and one-day series against Pakistan next month, Indian cricket board secretary SK Nair said.
Elliott said he had not yet examined the footage taken at the university's human movement laboratory but he was confident Harbhajan had bowled with similar intensity to Test match conditions.
