Saeed Ajmal: “I should have taken legal action against the ICC for banning me from bowling. If I had gone to court against the ICC to question their use of technology to assess the legality of my bowling action, then I would have won that case”
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Legendary Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal has said that he should have taken legal action against the International Cricket Council (ICC) for banning him from bowling as he “would have won that case”.
Ajmal was banned from bowling in 2014, but questioned the ICC’s “technology to assess the legality of my bowling action”.
He also suggested that Pakistan players are being targeted while foreign players continue to bowl freely even if their actions may seem suspicious.
“I should have taken legal action against the ICC for banning me from bowling. If I had gone to court against the ICC to question their use of technology to assess the legality of my bowling action, then I would have won that case,” Ajmal told PakPassion.
“From what I understand, the location of the computer chip which is installed on the body of the bowler can determine if the player passes or fails his bowling action test. The location of the chip on the bowler’s body can mean a difference of 5 or 6 degrees in terms of permissible straightening of the elbow joint which places a big question mark on the whole process.
“And to top it all, the results of all those measurements are pushed through a ‘black box’ to determine the legality of an action which I find to be a complete mystery. The fact is that in this testing procedure, there is nothing which can be said with 100 percent certainty, and that being the case, how can a bowler’s action be deemed illegal based on this testing procedure? You can only have that level of confidence when the ICC can clearly explain how the procedure works.
“Look at what has been done to Mohammad Hafeez who had been bowling so well international cricket. The poor guy cannot bowl properly due to all these restrictions. Yet we have others, non-Pakistanis, who are bowling freely whilst our guys are being banned for illegal actions.”
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