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.
I feel England batsmens are unable to play against Ajmal so they are raising issues, am from India and i feel he is a good bowler.
Thats’ all part of game these days, criticise, bring player under pressure & take advantage of it. The only way to keep English media quite is to perform well as Ajmal is doing.
Ajmal’s bowling has been world class, he is a valuable bowler who has done exteremely well in this match so far. English commentators are perhaps the worst among the lot, maybe just ahead of the Aussies, they are parochial and patronising and lack objectivity. I wont be surprised if the next race for the Number 1 spot is between Pakistan and Australia in that order. This series may be the beginning of a new world order in cricket. As an Indian it saddens me to see my country dwindle into a has been team but cricket excitement can still be had through matches between Aus, SA & Pak and maybe England in England vs anyone.
English media has descended on Saeed Ajmal like vultures trying to take focus off his brilliant performance and onto imagined actions. Controversy is good as it helps them sell more newspapers, which is exactly what they are trying to do.
England commentators are now coming out with excuses because they want the attention of the public to wander and cover up the failings of this england team. He was a poor bowler and a poor sportsman. Ajmal is without doubt the best spinner in the world and willis is jealous. Is every player that wears long sleeves a cheater?. Sky sports should sack willis if they have any self respect or tell him to stop covering up englands failings by slandering the talented Pakistan team. He has not got the looks or the brains for being on television. Pakistan will win thats a given.
I wonder why Sawnn is wearing long sleeves…fishy…hehe the english press attitude is childish…makes me say something I just read at the back of a Rickshaw. “Dont Jelous!” hehe
Well said Kamran. I also remember this poetic lines behind a rickshaw when I used to live in Karachi.
“Hasad Na Ker, Mehnat Ker”
translated as “Don’t be jealous, work hard”
I guess since it was not an official complaint, PCB should play it cool but needs to strongly reply this through past cricketers analysts and media (informally). Bob Willis should be made fun of and the details of ajmals clearance should be presented in the media to hush the crtitcs and dis-credit them. The PCB should also send message to ECB regarding the on-going war of words and should communicate them that this can be reciprocated and would bring the stature of the game below acceptable level.
After years and years of struggle Pakistan cricket team is performing as a team in a consisting way. And Saeed Ajmal is a big part of the team. Hats off for him. Bob Willis is just a commentator of England. He has his own charms and attitudes. I tell you it is the same story here in Australia. No commentator want a better player than his own team player.
But why Pakistan and Pakistanis all the time.
Saeed Ajmal is a talented spinner. And if it comes to backing up Pakistan Team and Saeed Ajmal then The ICC must and should support morally and financially.
KEEP IT UP BOYS.
I think the role of ICC will be zero, because they never defend any pakistani player. and the second thing is that gora people never every accept any talent regarding sub continent player.
ICC should take immediate step against the comments as ICC already legalized his bowling actions. It is already in history that the English media used to criticize Pakistani bowlers which should be stopped now.
It was writing on the wall that it would be hard for Englishmen to digest the super performance of Pakistani spinner and they will start criticizing him. Anything go against them they tend to find something fishy about that. They must be made accountable for such baseless accusations.
Good point Tariq-PCB should have a media team ready to counter these allegations well before hand and vociferously-if u leave the filed open and dont counter-u lose the media image war!.
India has hired sympathisers in the media-anyone raises a voice against them-the sleepers in the media go into action and make the accuser look like a criminal.
Learn the international media game PCB and Pak govt.
I think this is the routine of english circketers and their goal is to put pakistanteam in to cotraversies and demage their image in world circket
new controversy is going to kick off…
No, I think we should stand against these negative remarks by English media. Pakistani media should play its role here, but they are already busy with hot and spicy country politics. Its media who can raise a common man voice to the world. And I think ICC should make some strong actions against guys who come to media and cry for their losses.
Absolutely ICC should. Once they allowed bend upto 15 degrees this should not be an argument. But English were also upset about reverse swing till they mastered it. Once they know how to bowl doosra and possibly teesra they will stop criticizing it. We should be proud of some great additions we have done to the game of cricket let’s not forget the reverse sweep also from Javed.
ICC is a nuteral body, it should advise bob willis (or anyone) to refrain from any comments directed on any player. if someone has a comment or concern, they should contact ICC and raise their concern officially.
Poms does not own the game, it’s about time they should realise it. Wake up and smell the air, it’s not 1900 anymore.
Pakistani fast bowlers taught the world the “reverse swing” and Saqlain Mushtaq invented “doosra”. When it was our bowlers, we were told they were “tampering with the ball”- when their guys learned it off course this was an acquired skill. Why would it be different this time around. Shame on Bob Willis for his comments. May be he missed the last few series where Ajmal was bowling. ICC – they are spineless – a bowler whose action was “cleared”. We (ICC) have to defend him ?
wills is man with a small mind, he was crying when Wasim, and Waqar were beating England with their swing. Now that English bowlers can swing the ball it is fine. It would be fine if their bowlers can do the dosra. He is a cry baby.
I belive that ICC is useless entity which has never taken an appropriate action at the “right” time and so is the PCB. whenever a bowler has performed well irrespective of the origin English players and media had gripped about it like a winy kid. expecting a favorable statement from ICC is ” a dream of madman”.
English can never accept superiority with any grace. Frankly they are shameless!
It’s a foolish to think ICC will take an action in favor of any Pakistani player. ICC, a fraternity is solely created to look after the interest of few. “We” do not matter.
Bob Willis was moaning when Hafiz bowl only sixth over of the game. He keeps complaining about Ajmal’s full sleeves shirt but not a single word for Swan wearing same type. In my opinion, this kind of persons should be banned by ICC for commenting on any of international cricket game.
Unfortunately the criticism of Ajmal would increase if Pakistan won the first test. It is ICC’s job to silence the these critics because Ajmal’s action has already been tested. It is called ‘bad losers’.
ICC has already been notorious over its verdict about Pakistan’s cricket team. so now it should act very carefully to prove that its not an anti Pakistani team body. when it supports cricketers of teams against Pakistan’s stance so it should clearly utter in favor of Ajmal too by giving an official comment over this issue. so far what Saeed ajmal said that there are some people who have gone around the best performance of the off-spinner so its absolutely true the day light. ICC should hold Willi accountable for his negative comment about AJmal and must fine fees.
A lot of fans in Sub continent would love to call these criticism unfair.
But reality is he is bending his elbow which gives him a lot more control over ball than others .Bending elbow is not legal in order to accommodate the Murlidaran’s action under the pressure from Asian lobby they allowed 15 degree of bend .However since there is no equipment available for umpires to measure this on the ground they decided that blowers action will be tested separately in a test.And when ever bowlers are tested there they bowl without bending their elbow in those test and come out clean every time .Umpires should be allowed to call any ball a no ball if they feel that it is not legal delivery or icc should use videos of match to decide ban on bowler, only this way we can eliminate this menace
If we want to prove that we are as good as ENG or Aus are , then we have to defeat them fairly by showing them our real talent and skill.
Kunal,
No one complained about Ajmal until he destroyed England. Ajmal has been playing internation cricket for last several years including county cricket, why did no one brought up the issue? You think Bob Willis has a special talent that no one else has for spotting bent arms? And weak minded people like you are falling for people like Bob Willis ignoring the fact that the on field umpires can indeed report any bowler for bowling suspicious balls and neither of the umpires reported Ajmal for anything. Yes we people never take criticism graciously but in this particular case, we should deliberately fight the people who insinuate the notion that the subcontinent people are inherentaly cheaters.
Whenever Pakistans cricketers introduce new tehcniques they are called ‘cheats’. This is what happened with reverse swing. Reeverse swing has now become an ‘art’ becasue England can play reverse swing too. They ahev learnt this art from the Paskitani.
The fact that Ajmal has already been tested and cleared makes little difference to people like Kunnal becasue the blower is Pakistani.
Well i did mentioned Murli in my comment who is not a Pakistani and is Hindu……My point is bending elbow should not be allowed to any bowler……..getting cleared in any test which is not part of any competitive match does not have any weight age to it, bowlers should be judge by their real action which they show in a competitive match. Also Akram has already accepted that Pakistani bowlers cheated while doing for getting reverse swing in 92 against England and there are many videos available on you-tube which clearly show Waqar and Akram scratching and deforming the ball.
If this is the case, umpires do have four eyes and the procedure to report a bowler. If they feel, they can report it to ICC which then can (re)initiate the test.
The lab-test (as claimed by ICC itself and not PCB) is extensive and requires fromt the bowlers to produce the same length, speed and variations that he used to bowl in a competitive match. And even, match recordings and other statistics for that bowlers are also available to lab-docs during these tests.
Why test in Lab….why don’t umpires decide on each ball.they decide catches , LBWs and other important matter.Why umpires have not given authority to decide if the ball has been delivered with proper action or not.The lab test are precisely done to cover up the issue under different cricketing lobbies .In the Case of Murli Asian lobby backed him nad made sure he is cleared in test.Also to clear the test or retest bowlers only have to ball without bending the hand and just like that they all clear the test .
Still i hope someone will re initiate this test on Ajmal ,as some of his deliveries amounts to throwing not even chucking.
One More thing ICC is not like UNO .it is just a board of small bunch of people who come from different cricket board of the world and is dominated by Asian particularly Indian because they have more money .