Stop that no-ball chant

By Rico

Tom Moody was among a rare breed of Australians, who had condemned his own countrymen for constantly tormenting Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan with taunt of ‘chucker’. The incomparable Don was another and Dav Whatmore the third of the breed.

Moody, who resigned as coach of Sri Lanka after guiding the emerald island nation to World Cup final, recently lambasted the Australian crowd for disgraceful slant on a cricketer .

Murali was greeted by ‘’no-ball’’ chants by the Aussie crowd whenever he bowled when Sri Lanka toured Australia in January 2006 with Moody as coach. It was not a new thing though for, the ‘Kandy conjurer’ has been taunted in every tour since Darrell Hair first called him for ‘chucking’ on a fateful Boxing Day Test at historic Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1995.

"It's not ideal and it's a shame that it happens, particularly since he's gone through every test and scrutiny a player could possibly go through. We just need to enjoy the special talent he's got and let the game progress," Moody had also said then in 2006.

Since that Hair calling, Murali's action has been scrutinised umpteen times and cleared four times by the University of Western Australia, and by University of Hong Kong and in England but the taunting at grounds across Australia have continued.

Although most have now been persuaded that his action is freakish but clean, there remains a hardcore that refuse to believe what biomechanists’ have been saying for 10 years: Murali's deformed elbow creates the optical illusion of throwing but the actual arm-bend is miniscule, now well within the ICC's new 15 degree tolerance limit.

Even his now retired spin rival Shane Warne, whose great rivalry with Murali many believed was behind the Aussie taunting of the Lankan freakish genius, had famously declared during a Tsunami fund raising tour to Sri Lanka in early 2005 that Murali did not chuck.

The hardcore still exist, which include India’s own loud mouthed sardar Bishan Singh Bedi, whose "Javelin thrower Murali" made Whatmore so furious in 2002. Besides Bedi, Michael Holding, Michael Atherton and Richie Benaud have also felt that Murali's action resembles that of javelin thrower's. But the most infamous of them would be Australian Prime Minister John 'Loose Lips' Howard who stooped so low from his high political status to publicly condemn Murali as ''chucker''.

So incensed was Murali by Howard's statement that he decided not to tour Australia in June-July 2004 for a two-Test series. But a generous Australian response to the Indian Ocean tsunami (Dec 26, 2004) relief changed his mind and he played for a fund-raising charity match in Melbourne in January 2005. He was also part of the World XI Test and one-day teams for the ICC Super Series which played against Australia at Sydney and Melbourne in October 2005.

The 'big ego' Aussie Darrell Hair was the torch-bearer of the whole drama when he no-balled Murali seven times in MCG on December 27, 1995. Hair was at it again later calling Murali’s actions ''diabolical'' this time in his autobiography -- a cheap means to earn money by the sale of his book. His removal later from ICC Elite Panel of Referees for demanding money quid pro quo retirement from job in the aftermath of Oval Test fiasco in 2006 was another story.

Ross Emerson was another comical figure in the whole saga. He called Murali in the Brisbane ODI in Januray 1996 just a few days after Hair’s no-ball. Ian Botham was furious and Lankan Managaer Ranjit Fernando said ''Someone out there decided to play god today.'' Murali's action was passed by the ICC after biomechanical analysis at the University of Western Australia and at the University of Hong Kong in 1996 -- they concluded that his action created the ''optical illusion of throwing'' but that didn't stop Emerson once again calling him for the second consecutive tour of Australia in Adelaide when Sri Lanka toured in 1998-99. This led Arjuna Ranatunga to almost lead his boys out of ground in protest only to be persuaded by team management and bosses at home. Murali was subsequently cleared for a second time.

In early 2004 when Australia toured Sei Lanka, Englishman Chris Broad, the ICC match referee, reported Muralia for bowling the doosra and ICC banned the wrongun which goes the other way. Ironically, Broad’s action brought forth a great deal of research which ultimately led to a survey of the bowlers in the ICC Champions Trophy in late 2004 that 99 per cent of all bowlers chucked.

This implied under the then definition of a legitimate delivery (5% straightening of arm for spinners. 7.5% fopr medium pacers and 10% for fast bowlers), such pillars of the bowling establishment including Glenn McGrath and Shaun Pollock chuck. ICC biomechanical expert Dr Hurrion, who set the previous levels of tolerance for bowlers, was asked by the ICC to review it and to arrive at one figure, which was applicable to all bowlers. The other two experts were Bruce Elliott of UWA who had earlier cleared Murali on two occasions and Mark Portus and they arrived at fifteen degrees for all bowlers in mid 2005.

So, hats off to this genial-looking Tamil married to a Chennai girl recently for bearing all the trial and tribulations which is perhaps unprecedented in cricketing history. But here, there is another interesting story. The great Don had praised Murali’s composure under the chucking cloud.

In a book entitled ‘Chuckers’ 2004, a history of throwing in Australian cricket compiled and written by Bernard Whimpress, conversations with Tom Thompson between 1995 and 1998 reveal that Bradman believed Murali's action to be clean and his ordeal unfair Bradman was an admirer of Murali. ''Murali, for me, shows perhaps the highest discipline of any spin bowler since the War (WWII),'' Bradman had said. Bradman went on to object to Murali being no-balled during the Boxing Day Test of 1995: ''With the game's need to engage as a world sport, that I found umpire Darrell Hair's calling of Murali so distasteful. It was technically impossible of umpire Hair to call Murali from the bowler's end. Why was his eye not on the foot-fall and crease?

''I believe Hair's action - in one over - took the development of world cricket back by ten years. For me, this was the worst example of umpiring that I have witnessed, and against everything the game stands for. Clearly Murali does not throw the ball.''

(Picture Source: BBC)