BCCI reported as many as 177 bowlers for suspect actions: Report

At least 110 bowlers were either reprimanded or fined by the umpires for disciplinary indiscretions in 2015.

New Delhi: Continuing it's efforts to curb the menace of chucking, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly reported 177 bowlers with suspect actions in the last one-and-half seasons.

According to a report in The Indian Express, which had accessed the BCCI's Code of Conduct & Suspect Action List, said that of these bowlers, 110 were either reprimanded or fined by the umpires for disciplinary indiscretions in 2015.

Besides, the Indian board also charged 25 teams and captains for slow over rate in matches across various age-group levels, including women cricketers.

Eight of the bowlers, who were reported, were tested at Chennai’s SRMC and subsequently not allowed to bowl. Mumbai opener Akhil Herwadkar, incidentally, was barred twice in the same year across two seasons—once in January after a match against Tamil Nadu and against the same team in October, the report added.

It's learnt that the BCCI has empowered its umpires to not show any leniency towards suspect actions.

It quoted BCCI’s general manager game development, Ratnakar Shetty, as saying, “In fact this year, an umpire workshop happened in Chennai-SRMC, where we had a session on how to detect suspect actions and what should be the reporting system. We don’t want people with unfair actions to be playing. Most of the suspect action cases are mostly found at the junior levels, the under-16 and under-19 categories."

“Coaches are responsible for this. It’s the state association’s responsibility to ensure that they take measures to help the cricketers with suspect actions to overcome the problem. At least one association I know, Karnataka, have formed a committee to monitor junior cricketers,” Shetty added.