As the famous Harvey Specter very frequently says " Play the man, not the game." The Australian cricket board Cricket Australia has played it very well with a laboratory in Brisbane coming out with a report stating how Ajmal's bowling action is against the laws laid down by the ICC, just before Pakistan play Australia soon. So his suspension by the ICC for illegal bowling action is nothing more than a ruse to neuter Pakistan and help Australia. But isn't this the same story every year when a South Asian tweaker has been pulled up for suspect action just before a crucial series.
Being a true Indian Cricket lover I have never ever acknowledged any Pakistani player of being very good, better than our Indian counterparts, but for Saeed Ajmal it was surprisingly different. So my heart sank when I read about this player being under the lens for suspect action. The said 15 degree bowling action has been in contention since a long time The initial allowed angle was 7.5 degrees which has eventually been increased to 15 when the officials realized almost all bowlers would be flouting this rule.
Yes the player does have a suspect action which allows him to bowl the doosra more effectively than any other player, but that doesn't take away any merit from the wickets that he has taken over the years. It wasn't just this one particular ball that had batsmen guessing. There are enough evidences of him bamboozling batsmen with his stock off-spin deliveries and these aren't just batsmen who are not comfortable playing spin, but even batsmen from spin friendly countries who are very good players of spin.
Cricket as a game has been evolving over the years and the rate has just expedited in the last decade with the advent of T20 cricket. The game has become more batsmen friendly with more and more innovative shots are being played and there is an overall change in the attitude of the batsmen. But there is hardly anything done to aid the bowlers. So if a particular bowler has some aces up his sleeve why not allow it on the field to some extent. With the technology available every bowler can be very easily scrutinized and studied, so if a bowler like Ajmal is still a force to reckon with after so many international matches, I guess it should be to his credit and not just his abnormal bowling arm. If the game actually needs to progress there should be enough done for the bowlers to be motivated to take it up.
Maybe increasing the currently allowed bowling degree can be one step towards allowing the likes of Ajmal to flourish and also make the game more challenging and interesting. This can also ensure that the attempts to duplicate illegal actions can be kept under check.
