A decade ago, cricket’s ancient hyper-morality met the modern world’s thirst for reality television. The focus for this communion was Muttiah Muralitharan and, more specifically, his action.
Body-NoIndent: Two channels, ESPN (in India) and the UK’s Channel 4, broadcast what were paraded as definitive acquittals of Muralitharan’s action, which had been called repeatedly, occasionally sanctioned and permanently the subject of hysterical debate.
Muralitharan went through his repertoire with a steel-embedded plaster brace around his right arm, from bicep to wrist, and in good nature. He could not chuck, the takeaway was, with a steel brace on. He bowled to Michael Slater in one, to recreate match conditions.
There was a doctor present, too, explaining the unique physical quirks of Muralitharan’s wrist, arm and shoulder. Ravi Shastri and Mark Nicholas, for ESPN and Channel 4, respectively, became judge, jury and, eventually, the beneficent who cleared him.
Shastri did so in the same hype-master tone of all games he commentates upon; Nicholas was the more considered, inquiring and, importantly, non-Asian view.
In hindsight, it is not so much the details of Muralitharan’s case that are important, as for the fact that cricket felt the need for this public trial by TV in the first place.
Though he looks uncomfortable, Murali was probably a willing participant, perhaps even an instigator in doing the shows, but that is hardly the point. He had been compelled to this by cricket, feeling no other recourse was available to prove that he was not some cheating villain.
That is precisely what umpires such as Ross Emerson and Darrell Hair were trying to turn him into, no-balling him repeatedly with an ugly fervour. Men often are prone to delusions when invested with the tiniest bit of authority, but when cricket furnishes them with a haloed moral authority, this is what it gets.
Both were maintaining a tradition of the profession. When cricket first became obsessed with suspect actions in the 1960s, umpires led the way in hounding out suspected bowlers. It was a proper hounding, too, a lynch mob fit for condemning criminals. It turned bowlers into pariahs, guilty of a great immoral act.
That attitude remains. It retains more than just a whiff of moralising on suspect actions; in the smugness of Australia and England that their off-spinners do not bowl doosras, or feel the need to wear long sleeves; in Michael Vaughan and then Stuart Broad tweeting photos of Saeed Ajmal in action and, metaphorically, nodding and winking.
That yanks into black-and-white territory what is an inherently grey technical matter. Suspect actions can be deliberate, but they can also be functions of the mechanics of human bodies that we do not well understand.
What effect, for instance, did a fairly serious accident have on Ajmal’s right forearm when he was younger? How to explain the squirmy spectacle of Shoaib Akhtar being able to bend his elbows in ways it normally does not?
And where, in any case, is the study that sheds more light on the exact nature of the advantages gained from greater elbow flexion? It is said that bowling the doosra is impossible without breaking the acceptable degrees of flexion, but has anyone explained how Saqlain Mushtaq, the pioneer, did it with almost no visible bend at all?
Last week, an ICC committee expressed concerns about the process of identifying, reporting and testing suspect actions, and recommended changes.
It emerges that those concerns primarily centre around the University of Western Australia in Perth, where bowling actions undergo testing.
The time and cost of sending a bowler that far has always been an issue, but now, so is the fact that discrepancies have emerged in the findings of the Perth labs and others around the world.
The ICC wants to enable other labs in England, South Africa and India to be used and ultimately standardise findings. They are also testing sensors that provide real-time analysis of a bowler’s action during a game. That process still must be fine-tuned and finalised before it can be considered for use at senior level, but it could lead to the answer of a question raised by Mike Hesson.
The New Zealand coach is taking on the West Indies, who have, in Shane Shillingford, a spinner whose action is under scrutiny.
What would happen, Hesson asked, if a wicket was to be taken with a delivery bowled by an action that was illegal? Would, or should, they call the batsman back?
It is a valid question and a difficult, complicated one. It is, after all, a difficult, complicated issue, to be treated as such. Cricket has somehow still not grasped this.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter at SprtNationalUAE
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
World Cup League Two
Results
Oman beat Nepal by 18 runs
Oman beat United States by six wickets
Nepal beat United States by 35 runs
Oman beat Nepal by eight wickets
Fixtures
Tuesday, Oman v United States
Wednesday, Nepal v United States
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THE SPECS
Engine: 3-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 424hp
Torque: 580 Nm
Price: From Dh399,000
On sale: Now
HAJJAN
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The Intruder
Director: Deon Taylor
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Michael Ealy, Meagan Good
One star
TERMINAL HIGH ALTITUDE AREA DEFENCE (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US's most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out ballistic missiles as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 150 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then stationed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
SERIES SCHEDULE
First Test, Galle International Stadium
July 26-30
Second Test, Sinhalese Sports Club Ground
August 3-7
Third Test, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 12-16
First ODI, Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium
August 20
Second ODI, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 24
Third ODI, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 27
Fourth ODI, R Premadasa Stadium
August 31
Fifth ODI, R Premadasa Stadium
September 3
T20, R Premadasa Stadium
September 6
Sri Lanka squad for tri-nation series
Angelo Mathews (c), Upul Tharanga, Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Janith Perera, Thisara Perera, Asela Gunaratne, Niroshan Dickwella, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Dushmantha Chameera, Shehan Madushanka, Akila Dananjaya, Lakshan Sandakan and Wanidu Hasaranga
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
Coming 2 America
Directed by: Craig Brewer
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones
3/5 stars
