LAHORE, Jan 18: Pakistan cricket authorities want the International Cricket Council (ICC) to encourage and back umpires to call bowlers with suspect bowling actions instead of making them go through a lengthy review process.

“There is a law which clearly defines what is an illegal action and empowers umpires to no-ball such bowlers,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director cricket operations, Saleem Altaf, said on Wednesday.

“The ICC needs to encourage its umpires to practically apply this law on the field despite the pressures of such an action,” he said.

Saleem will accompany pace bowler Shabbir Ahmed to Dubai for an appeal hearing on Jan 21 regarding a 12-month suspension on the Pakistani bowler for having an illegal action.

The PCB has appointed former Test paceman Sarfraz Nawaz to modify Shabbir’s action and has prepared video footage that it believes will help his career at the hearing.

International umpires now rarely call a bowler for a suspect action on the field and instead report him to the ICC.

This protocol has been followed by umpires after Australian Darrell Hair no-balled Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing during the second Test at Melbourne on Dec 27, 1995.

It caused an international cricket uproar and Muralitharan refused to tour Australia in 2004 for the two-Test series in Darwin and Cairns citing hostility from Australian crowds.

Since then Muralitharan has been reported again by the umpires for his doosra.

“The way we look at it, umpires are now reporting bowlers for a few suspect deliveries in a match,” said Saleem.

“Shabbir was reported after the Multan test against England for six balls. Why jeopardise a bowler’s livelihood and career when he can be corrected on the field?”

Saleem will stress at the hearing the need to encourage umpires to call bowlers on the field so they can go back to the drawing board immediately. Teams would then also be careful about using such bowlers without first correcting them.

“If a bowler is persistently being called then he must go through the bowling action review process,” he added.

Saleem said there were gaps in the current bowling action review process that needed sorting out.

“The process has to be very clear — yes or no,” he said.

Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez have also been reported for suspect actions.

Shabbir, meanwhile, said he was confident his ban would be lifted on appeal, having seen footage of his modified action.

“I am feeling much more confident now, although when they initially announced the suspension I was very depressed,” he said.—Reuters