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InDepth headlines national business sports cricket regional entertainment technology world travel autos health | Bedi bowls a ‘googly’ at Murali, Harbhajan 20.48 IST 01st Feb 2002 By IndiaExpress Bureau The chucking charge continues to dog ace Sri Lankan spinner Muthiah Muralitharan though tow panels have cleared him. The Australians, for instance, have never been able to reconcile themselves with Murali’s genius. This time round, it is another master spinner, Bishen Singh Bedi, who has gone on record that Murali is a chucker. The sardar of spin has also questioned the away-going delivery of India's own Harbhajan Singh. "If Murali doesn't chuck, then show me how to bowl," Bedi said in an interview published in the February issue of Wisden Cricket Asia. "How can you call it bowling? He (Muralitharan) has no follow-through and he makes no use of his shoulders. Murali's arm doesn't go up at all. I have a picture of him bowling somewhere. He looks like a good javelin thrower," Bedi claimed. The expert panels appointed by the International Cricket Council were of the view that the abnormality in the Sri Lankan's action was due to a slight bend in his bowling arm, a natural deformity. This being the reality, he could not be accused of chucking. But Bedi does not agree. "It's just too bad, honestly. Some people are born blind... Will a blind man be allowed to fly an aircraft? So why should a bowler be allowed to chuck because he has a defective arm? What does not conform to law is illegal and the law has to be applied uniformly. The problem is that the parent body (ICC) is not taking cognizance. It may soon become monstrous - every team may end up with three or four chuckers," he said. Bedi was unsparing in his criticism of Harbhajan as well. It’s the away-going delivery of ‘Bhajji’, which has raised Bedi’s hackles." In the good old days, it was called the floater. It was bowled using the shoulder, like an outswinger. You bowled it with the off-spinner's action, but without imparting any spin. You rolled it, and put in a little extra shoulder, so the ball drifted away. (But) now they do it with their elbows and wrists. And they do it at a good 90 to 95 km per hour - whereas an arm-ball or a floater is at the same speed as the normal ball. It is an illegitimate ball." Bedi blamed one-day cricket for the decline in the art of spin bowling. "The very concept of one-day cricket is anti-spin bowling. By his very nature, the spinner must buy his wickets, must encourage the batsmen to go after him. One-day cricket demands that the spinner alter his fundamentals. It has reduced genuine wicket-taking bowlers to containing bowlers. "Today, what's the difference between a Harbhajan Singh and bowlers like Sourav Ganguly or Ian Harvey? They all are trying to do the same thing," he said. |
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