Cricket chiefs spell out doosras and don'ts

Cricket bosses have three months to convince sceptics that new proposals to deal with dodgy bowling actions do not amount to a charter for chucking.

A recommendation that a bowler should be able to straighten his arm by up to 15 per cent during delivery and still be regarded as legal has already drawn the charge of being drafted specifically to accommodate Muttiah Muralitharan.

If the proposal is accepted by the International Cricket Council in February then Murali, who is at present recovering from a shoulder operation, will once again be able to bowl his controversial 'doosra' delivery.

The Sri Lankan spinner has been called a chucker by many - including some Australian umpires - and, under existing guidelines, risks being no-balled again.

Murali's 'doosra' - effectively an off-spinner's leg-break to a righthanded batsman - is said to be bowled only when he has straightened his arm by about 14 degrees.

But research carried out for the ICC and then reviewed by a committee of former players has revealed that a vast majority of bowlers, down the ages, have straightened their arms to some degree. But that any straightening only becomes visible to the naked eye at around 15 degrees.

England seamer Angus Fraser, whose action always looked 100 per cent pure but apparently wasn't, has been studying the evidence. Fraser said: "Murali is the biggest name and he's someone who has given this issue publicity.

"But the rules are not being changed just to accommodate Murali. I've sat on the committee, watched all the evidence, listened to what the biomechanists had to say, and this is the number of degrees we think is right. There has to be a number which we can say if you go above you're in trouble."

The ICC's cricket committee has already approved the recommendation and the next step is to put the subject before world cricket's top brass at a chief executive's meeting next February.