Following last week’s consideration of the most significant of the 73 recently announced changes to the Laws of Cricket, a new challenge to an old law has surfaced.
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This focuses on what constitutes a fair delivery and the spotlight has fallen on Pakistan’s spinner, Usman Tariq. At first sight, one might assume Tariq’s 1.93-meter height would make it likely he would be a fast bowler. He used to be, but an injury restricted his movement and he turned to spin. After some success he decided to stick with it, although now aged 28, it has taken him at least six years to hit the heights.
There is little doubt Tariq has a distinctive action. He starts with a shuffle, takes a skip, then three short steps to arrive alongside the crease. He enters with a sideways step on one foot, pausing in his delivery stride, knee raised, looking at the batter, before delivering the ball in a slinging, round-arm action. This is defined as the hand being between shoulder and waist height and is different to the delivery mode long adopted by most bowlers, who have a high arm action.
Attempts to introduce round-arm bowling in the first quarter of the 19th century met with fierce resistance to the point where the Marylebone Cricket Club introduced a law in 1816 to prohibit its practice. Gradually, however, attitudes changed and by 1835 its use was legitimized. It was not long before bowlers raised their hands above the shoulder during delivery. This led to years of confrontation between bowlers, umpires and law makers, which ended when the MCC changed Law 10 in 1864. Bowlers were allowed to bring their arm through at any height providing it was straight and the ball was not thrown.
