The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Give the power back to the umpires

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Give the power back to the umpires

The whole issue of legal bowling actions in the modern era has become a joke. Harbhajan Singh has become the latest victim of a flawed system. Either a bowler throws or he doesn't. If he throws he should be called on the field of play at the time of the incident. To be cited and called into question after the event does not help the batsman at the time and it is unfair on the bowler who then has a question mark hanging over him until `cleared' at a later date.

Once `cleared' in a sterile environment what is to stop the individual from returning to his old ways once he is back on the field of play and his team needs a wicket? This nonsense has got to stop. For the sake of the game and the individuals who make a living from it, cricket must make a decision on what is a throw and what isn't.

I understand why the research was done on degrees of bending and I agree with it being done. What we need now is for the powers that be to make a decision on what is legal and what is not and give the power back to the umpires on the field to deal with it. As someone who has played both cricket and baseball I know there is an obvious difference between a ball that is bowled and one that is thrown and it can be seen with the naked eye. It does not require a raft of expensive cameras to show the difference.

Mechanics of bowling

Perhaps we need to look at the mechanics of bowling to get a better feel for the mechanical difference between a thrown ball and one that is bowled. Bowling was an integral part of the game of cricket from the start and it is what defines our game from others such as baseball. Bowling coaching from the early days was based around the need to rotate the body to allow the ball to be bowled rather than thrown. That is why the side-on action became the norm for fast and slow bowlers alike.

The run up is unique to cricket and is used to provide momentum. How this momentum is used is then the key. The energy generated must be stored in the body, and this is achieved by coiling the body. The transition from the predominately forward momentum into predominately angular momentum describes this process termed coil. The coil is similar to the action of wringing a cloth — the body is, in effect, twisted. The shoulders rotate past the line of the hips to create a degree of separation. Once the body is wound up it can be unwound quickly generating bowling arm and, subsequently, ball speed. It is all about coiling and uncoiling with momentum.

Side-on bowling

This is where classical swing bowlers such as Kapil Dev and Irfan Pathan get their swing from and it is why Bishen Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna could drift the ball in the air as well as spin it from the wicket. Side-on bowling is becoming a neglected art.

Many of today's bowlers are bowling front-on which lends itself to throwing and flattens out the flight of the ball. Spinners are no longer drifting the ball in the air and it is the rare fast bowler who swings the ball in the classical style of past eras.

Front-on bowlers are more prone to throw the ball than their side-on counterparts because the front hip and shoulder opens out toward the target very quickly. This means that the bowling arm cannot keep up with the fast-spinning body. The only way it can catch up is for the arc of the arm to be shortened by bending the elbow.

Mystery balls such as the `doosra' require more opening out of the front hip and shoulder that allows for further bending of the elbow. The different flight caused by the late jerking motion is what confounds batsmen. Cricket needs to decide whether it wants these extra varieties of deliveries and more elbow bending in the game. If not then we probably need to return to coaching methods that emphasise the classical side-on delivery action.

(CafeCricket)

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