Saeed Ajmal has withdrawn from the World Cup Ace Pakistan spinner, Saeed Ajmal has decided to withdraw himself from the ICC Cricket World Cup, 2015 after failing to rectify his action in time to be eligible for selection. Ajmal, 37, Pakistans top spinner and their highest wicket-taker in all formats for the last three years, was suspended from bowling in international cricket in September due to an illegal action. Ajmal withdrew himself, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Shaharyar Khan told reporters in Karachi. We didnt want to take a risk with Ajmals career because latest reports suggested his elbow extension was not still within the 15 degrees allowed by the ICC, despite all the remedial work on his action. We were aware that if he took the official ICC test in a bid to make the World Cup squad and failed it, he could be suspended from playing for one to two years and that would mean the end of his career, Shaharyar was quoted as saying. Ajmal was scheduled to for an official action test with International Cricket Council (ICC) on December 8, but PCB decided to postpone the test so as to allow the boards illegal action committee to perform unofficial tests before he was submitted to ICCs official test. He was also picked in Pakistans A squad for the final two one-dayers against Kenya to allow him to play competitive cricket with his remodelled action. Unofficial tests at the Louborough university in England had found Ajmals action for the off-spinner as well as his faster delivery to be legal. But, it was the doosra that still failed to comply with ICCs 15-degree permissible limit. Under the International Cricket Council (ICC) rules, all bowlers are allowed to bend their elbow by 15 degrees beyond which the action is deemed illegal. Mohammad Akram, head coach at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) was supportive of Ajmals decision. Ajmal wants to play as the worlds number one bowler and not someone who wants to hide for his action. Saqlain advised him to concentrate on cricket after the World Cup, which he accepted and hence withdrew from the World Cup, Akram said. Ajmal will continue working on rectifying his action along with former spinner, Saqlain Mushtaq, in Lahore while another suspended spinner, Mohammad Hafeez, will travel to Chennai to have his action unofficially tested. The remedial work on his action will take some time so we are not sending him for an unofficial test, Shaharyar said.The PCB committee discussed the future course of action to be adopted with regard to Ajmal and Hafeez and agreed that in the case of Ajmal, further remedial work should continue in collaboration with Saqlain and a bio-mechanist in Lahore, he added.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 15:03:01 +0000
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