No warning for chuckers: BCCI tells umpires

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Mumbai: Having sent a whopping 32 players with suspect bowling action for rehabilitation, the Indian cricket Board has cracked the whip by asking the umpires to call these bowlers for chucking without issuing a warning if they transgress the law in domestic matches.

After providing the list of the 32 bowlers with doubtful actions to match referees, umpires' coaches and its panel of umpires as well as all affiliated associations, the BCCI has asked match officials to stay away from suggesting or instructing any cricket association or captains "not to play a particular player".

"During the pre-match meeting the match referee will only convey the warning and the outcome as per action replay if any bowler from the circulated list plays and bowls with suspect action," said the guidelines issued by BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty.

"Since the warning is already conveyed to the captain during the pre-match meetings by match referee, there is no need for an umpire to give any further warning to such bowlers on field of play," he said.

"If the bowler with suspect action plays and if in the opinion of the umpires he bowls with suspect action they can immediately call and stop him from bowling as per the law. He should not be allowed to bowl during the match. This action should be clearly communicated by match referees to team officials," the BCCI guidelines said.

The Cricket Board also stressed that umpires and referees "should not encourage any discussions with reference to 15 degrees criteria or comparison with any international bowler who may have peculiar action."

The 32-strong list of bowlers with suspect action includes twelve whose degree of transgression ranged from 0 to 15 degrees which has been accepted as permissible by the International Cricket Council.

The other 20 bent their arms to a higher degree, with five doing it between 15-20 degrees and fifteen by more than 20 degrees, as per a copy of the guidelines available with PTI.

Among those who underwent rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore for bending their arm above 15 degrees, four bowlers belonged to Kerala Cricket Association and the rest were from Tripura (3), Maharashtra (2), Bengal (2), Assam (2), Baroda (2), Gujarat (2), Hyderabad (1), Vidarbha (1) and Jammu and Kashmir (1).

The guidelines identified these 20 bowlers as "proven chuckers as their actions could not be rectified during the rehabilitation."

However, the BCCI has asked its officials to be vigilant even with those who bend their arms below 15 degrees "as rehabilitation at the NCA and bowling during match situations are two different issues."

The guidlines also gave a list of 10 bowlers who were called for chucking during this season's junior and senior Twenty20 tournaments.

The list : Mohnish Parmar, Amit Singh (both Gujarat), Sagar Sawant (under-19 player from Maharashtra), Mohammad Norman (UP), Yogesh Nagar (Delhi), Rohan Thapa (Baroda), Sayed Zaki (Orissa), Ankur Jund (Punjab), Vobhor Bisen (Vidarbha), Debabhakt Jamta (Tripura) and Arlen Konwar (Assam).