Cricket: Australians blame 'bent arm' for Lee's bowling

By RICHARD BOOCK

In a new twist to an old story, Australian cricketer Brett Lee has suggested that a physically deformed arm is responsible for the throwing accusations plaguing his career.

The 23-year-old, only last week voted Wisden's young player of the year, is facing International Cricket Council scrutiny after being reported for a suspect action during the test series against New Zealand in March.

Australian cricket authorities claimed yesterday that an injury during a national age-group tournament several years ago had left Lee with a permanently bent right arm, which had possibly contributed to an illusion of throwing.

Ironically, the same defence was mounted by Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan after he was no-balled by Australian umpires Darrell Hair, Ross Emerson and Ern McQuillan on tours Down Under in 1995 and last year.

"The arm is bent for life," Lee said yesterday. "It was wrongly diagnosed at the time and I'll never be able to straighten it. It's bent 10 to 15 degrees."

The throwing accusations were levelled by umpires Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Arani Jayaprakash and reported to the ICC by match referee Mike Denness.

Although nothing was revealed at the time, it was noticeable that on several occasions Denness spent a lot of time with television personnel at the end of the day's play, requesting and studying film footage.

Whatever his suspicions, the New Zealand side seemed unaware of concerns regarding Lee - apart from the difficulty of facing him - as they crashed to a 3-0 series loss.

New Zealand coach David Trist emphasised yesterday that his side had played no part in the complaints process and had not discussed the issue of Lee's action.

"We weren't aware of anything untoward," Trist said from England, where he is coaching the touring New Zealand A side.

"We had enough problems in our own camp without worrying about their's."

The Australian Cricket Board is furious over the handling of the affair, with chief executive Malcolm Speed questioning both Denness' procedures and the three-month delay before being informed.

Speed, who confirmed that Lee would play in next month's one-day series against South Africa, said the board would film all his deliveries and submit the footage to the ICC's Illegal Deliveries Panel, together with analysis from fast-bowling coach Dennis Lillee and from medical and biomechanics experts.

He said the board had already expressed its concern to the ICC over the delay in proceedings and over suggestions that Denness' report did not contain film footage of Lee's action from the various camera angles required.

"We have been very disappointed with how this has been handled and have said so to the ICC," Speed said.

"But the important thing here is to have this issue clarified once and for all, and for the panel to find that there is no problem with Brett Lee's action."

New Zealand throwing expert Dayle Hadlee said two central issues needed to be clarified to tidy up the rules and guidelines relating to an illegal delivery.

Hadlee, who has replaced New Zealand match referee John Reid on the Illegal Deliveries Panel, said that with advanced technology and lightning camera speeds, it was possible to demonstrate that all bowlers threw to some extent.

"The question used to be, do they throw? But now it's more to what degree do they throw?"

Hadlee said a big issue confronting modern administrators involved defining a correct delivery and deciding whether to take action on the basis of a super-slow motion video replay, or on the basis of the naked eye.

"When you cut a bowling action down to 1/100ths of a second on film, you find that everyone chucks and that it's impossible not to," he said.

"Because of that, there have been suggestions that initial identification should be made by the naked eye, with video and camera evidence being brought in once a problem has been established.

"The other concern right now is that we have all these guidelines on what constitutes an illegal delivery, but nothing on what a constitutes a legal action.

"I would have thought knowing what is correct is just as important as knowing what's incorrect."

The ICC has confirmed that their panel will meet by conference call well ahead of Australia's next match on August 16, to allow Lee time for remedial work "if required." Australia will play South Africa in a three-match indoor series at Melbourne in mid-August.

In Karachi, Pakistan cricket manager Brigadier Mohammed Nasir, who only recently was forced to defend the action of paceman Shoaib Akhtar, said the inquiry would not mean the end of Lee's international career.

"Brett Lee is a very nice, good-looking, young upcoming cricketer," he said. "He has already established himself. In my opinion I found nothing wrong with him."

Nasir said Lee would only improve his play following the examination by the ICC and would entrench himself as an international star.