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Issue of suspect action left to countries

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has left it to individual countries to ensure that players with suspect actions are corrected before they are picked for representative matches.

The ICC advisory panel on illegal deliveries concluded a two-day meeting yesterday during which they thoroughly examined Law 24 and made recommendations aimed at making it easier for umpires to recognise throwing.

They did not take action against specific bowlers. ICC chief executive Dave Richards said the meeting, called to review the procedures and the law in regard to bowling of illegal deliveries, recommended changes focussing mainly ''on defining what is a fair delivery rather than what is an unfair delivery".

''There was agreement that all countries had responsibility to ensure that a player with a doubtful action was indentified in domestic cricket and corrective action taken before that player was selected to represent his country,'' Richards said in a statement.

''The panel is recommending that each country establish its own advisory panel comprising a mix of current and former players and umpires to review any player and to recommend appropriate remedial action,'' the statement continued.

The statement acknowledged that some countries already had such a procedure in place and urged others to do so.

The panel was chaired by Sir Clyde Walcott and included Bob Simpson of Australia, Doug Insole and Nigel Plews of England, Kapil Dev of India, John Reid of New Zealand, Javed Burki of Pakistan, Brian Basson of South Africa, Ranjan Madugalle of Sri Lanka, Michael Holding of West Indies and Andy Pycroft of Zimbabwe.

World Cup umpires Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Steve Bucknor also attended.

UNI