Pakistan’s off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has come under criticism by the English media, specifically Bob Willis, who has questioned the bowler’s action.
Commenting during the first day’s play between Pakistan and England at Dubai, Willis said “Why is it that all these spinners wear long-sleeved shirts buttoned around the wrist?” said Willis.
“The answer is clear isn’t it? They are bending their elbows.”
While Ajmal, in his post-play press conference yesterday, said the comments do not effect him, an air of negativity has been created around the off-spinner’s career-best performance.
This, despite the ICC’s clearance over the legality of Ajmal’s action, which was tested at the University of Western Australia.
So far, no official statements have been made regarding the comments by either team or the ICC. However, being the game’s governing body, should the ICC come out and defend Ajmal?
Should there be no further discussion over these negative comments?
What should be the role of the ICC in this scenario?
Dawn.com invites its readers to give their views and suggestions.
they are just looking at an excuse to tarnish Pakistan’s reputation. Now Pakistan has a reputation of cheating, so, it’s the obvious excuse.
Go on Ajmal, that was a good performance and the comment by the english guy shows his non-sportmanship.
The second innings shown the deficiency of english batters where Ajmal got only 3. This is nothing to take off of Ajmal’s 1st innings performance. English batter’s could bat better their first innings total in the second.
england has always criticised us after getting achievements ajmal don”t be pressurised.
We feel sorry, why Pakistan is deprived of the prestige,gained at such achievements. In the sake of game of cricket, such events must be recognized.
ICC has generally a structure which is biased against players from the subcontinent. Darell Hair went on record to say that he would call Murali every time he had the opportunity to do so. The umpire showed extreme bias but ICC kept him as an umpire for many years despite his utter incompetence. English & Australian media are great at generating excuses every time their team loses. In the 90s when Australia lost a game at Delhi, the reason was attributed to pollution !! When Amol Mazumdar (playing for Mumbai) carted Shane Warne all over the place, it was attributed to poor quality of baked beans. Warne got new lot from Australia & the rest of Indian batsmen carted him all over the place. My advise to my Pakistani friends,is just learn to ignore all these snide comments. England 7 Australia are masters in the art of cheating & complaining.
Calm down lads, it was a view of a pundit, no word from ECB or any of English management or player. Commentators are allowed to give opinions.
Thanks Pakistan for beating England with class and guile
why they not critise on swams action.
It is ajmals best bowling action that lead Pakistan to win over england by a huge margin of 10 instead criticising ajmal’s bowling action’wills should criticise england’s batsmen who collapsed badly.As a fan of world cricket they should appreciate pakistani cricket team.But history says whenever any pakistani cricketer performs good these English nonsense commentators start argumenting and make false, baseless statements against him.
from Kashmir….. they have no clue to defend ajmals blowing attack.Earlier they blame on wasim, waqar for ball tempering.they are trying to create doubt in players mind all this is game plan from English against pak players. Pcb and icc should take action against bob wilis
The problem is England complains about everything.. First they complained about Shoaib Akthar, then the Inzamam Ul Haq match controversy, then their referees questioned a bit more, and now Saeed Ajmal… Why do we even bother playing England… they are a bunch of losers.
It is sad for an ex-cricketer like Bob Willis to stir up controversy just because his team lost. I am sure he is aware that Saeed Ajmal has been playing cricket for a while now with similar questions raised and quashed by the administrators of the game. Mr. Willis complained about the Ajmal’s long sleeves shirts! he conveniently forgets that Swan wears long sleeves shirt as well while bowling. Sorry Bob learn to accept defeat gracefully and move on. Maybe it will serve you better to dispense some much needed advice to your batsmen who played some atrocious shots to get out. England is a good team with disciplined bowlers and they will try their best to come back and even the series.
I’m a Pakistani Supporter, however, it doesn’t mean I should support the wrong doing of any player? Wiht due respect to Saeed Ajmal, in my openion his bowling action during when bowls “DOOSRA” is supecious and or Illegal! Bio-Mechanics laws of our body have limitations, there is no possible way to bowl a “DOOSRA” without bending the elbow! Period. Over the years Cricket has become extremely dirty specially change in rules allowing 15 degree elbow bending rule! Which is outrageous! In bowling “One should rotate his bowling arm without bending his elbow”, or, otherwise you are Chucking! Simple is that! The pioneers of Chuckers are: Shoaib Akhtar, Manoj Parbhakar and Murali Darhan..Abdul Razzaq, Harbajan Singh and May be Malinga..list go on and on Occasions Bret Lee..
@ Mujahid,
As per Bio-mechanics goes only few people can understand that phenomena, and people who can understand, they tested few of the names you mentioned and passed them.
Please do not cry and make your point on non-issues.
I said in my comment and will say it again. Commentators have the right to say things what they like.
ECB, players did not say about Ajmal’s action yet. Please leave Bobby alone.
SAME OLD ENGLISH TACTIC. When they can’t play someone, the start doing what they’ve just started against Saeed Ajmal. He’s the best right now and he shouldn’t pay any attentions to these comments. We are with him. The ICC should ban such commentators who are biased and can’t look at the game positively. The PCB must take a stand and sue or at least warn Bob Willis for passing judgement like this when he’s just a commentator and not a referee.
the British media and ex cricketers like Willis instead of maligning Ajmal should criticize their own teams performance who played wreckless cricket both in batting and fielding. interestingly, the relation of pakistani players with the British medis is hilarious first it was waseem and waqar, then mushtaq ahmad and saqlain mushtaq and now it is our very own Ajmal. its high time that the international cricket body should wake up to tabloids like these which are inreality a show of poor sportsmen spirit by putting the reponsibilty of their teams weak performance on the other teams shoulder. ironically , if a new style emerges in South Asian cricket the British always have to criticize it as either ball tempering or illegal balling action and then later when they adopt the same style of bowling it becomes an art!!!! can somebody reallysolve this problem of the Brits?
ICC should serve a notice on Willis for indirectly accusing it of unprofessional behaviour. Ajmal has been cleared by ICC. What more is there to be said. Instead of emphasizing the need to learn to play spinners, Willis takes the easy way out.
I think ICC should serve a notice to him , to show that they deal fairly with all the cricket bodies and ex-test cricket players. Imagine If former pakistani test cricketer said something about english bowler , then this would have been all over ICC and english media to take immediate action. PCB should try get Mohammed Amir out at least and fight with ICC to clear him.
The English media and their sponsors are generally genetically unable to face the unfavourable odds against them in games. However, Ajmal along withhis team, must remain cool and determinedly focussed on his art of bowling aiming at tearing through the rival players’ defences. For this the next test is going to be critical.
I grew up watching Bob Willis bowling to Pakistani batsmen. He sure was one of the best bowlers of his time as he had lightning pace,bounce,swing and stamina. I forgot to mention his long curly hair which me and my brother really liked and tried to immitate him. We also had a lot of respect for him as he was a genuine fast bowler and we loved to watch him in action against Pakistan on England pitches where he would wreck our batting line up. I just read his recent comments about Saeed Ajmal and was so disappointed with his comments that all the respect he had in my heart for years has evaporated in thin air and from now on I just can’t stand him. I just want Bob Willis to know that he just lost a die hard fan of his and also my brother feels the same way. Bob we are totally disappointed with you and your comments. You really let us down. Shame on you a million times. Time for Icc to take action against Bob and ban him from commenting on public television in the future.
So when ever a Gora can’t play a south asian bowler or a non-gora bowler the issues of actions come to life. Get your player to learn to lose with respect. I am sure England can afford some classes on getting their players to get some manners of showing sportsman ship. Soar losers. Don’t try to find issues with us maybe look at your own faults Mr. Bob Willis.
Cry babies or bullies? How should we label the English? Honestly, they are the worst sportsmen in the world. They should not be allowed to hold the Olympics!
well the ICC can only defend england and australia.
england and australia has this culture that if they cant beat you then they destroy you.
AJMAL IS A FANTASTIC BOWLER EVEN ALL THE PAKISTANI BOWLERS ARE VERY GOOD BOWLERS. JUST ENJOY THE WIN………….. Again the same story, West can not appreciate East for anything. The media of England is with full of conspiracies. They took the help of Traitors from Pakistan and Rupart Murdoch’s newspaper “News of the World” in bringing the (3) best Pakistani Players down using money just before the World Cup. I saw Bob Willis Playing for England, very third class bowler. Now he proved himself that he is also a third class person who can not take the success positively of the players other than England players. They never say these things during commentary when playing against Australia or New Zealand. I am really disappointed by the English Media. SKY should fire Willis.
Instead of critizing Ajmal bowling, the english batsmen should learn to play his deliveries.
Instead of criticizing brilliance of Ajmal, they should learn to play Ajmal’s superb ripping deliveries.
Criticism should be healthy and consisted of a good logical reason. Bob Willis is a retired player. He can be a critice but can not be a judge of action. Harabajan Singh and Murli Dharan was criticized by many. We all know where they stand now. They both are the world class bowlers no doubt. Saeed Ajmal is coming up nice and hope he will also attain the same reputation as Harbajan,Murli and Shane Warne .Brit are good team , but unfortunately lost the game of their own weak performances. Hope they will realize their weaknesses and perform well in the up coming test match.