Mohammad Hafeez in trouble for comment on ICC, PCB issues notice

Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has issued a notice to experienced allrounder Mohammad Hafeez and asked him to explain his comments about the International Cricket Council (ICC) rules on suspected illegal bowling actions.

A source in the board said that the PCB is not happy with the comments made by Hafeez in his interview to BBC Urdu as it breached his central contract's code of conduct. Hafeez, whose bowling action was cleared for a third time in three years after a bowling assessment test by the ICC, lashed out at the implementation of rules on bowling action.

“There are so many things influencing [who gets called for suspect actions], it has a lot to do with the power of [some] boards and nobody wants to take them on,” Hafeez said. The all-rounder alleged that mostly there are soft corners and relations between people which no one wants to spoil.

 “What I say is, why not implement the rule and get every bowler in the world to go through [the testing process]. What's the difficulty in that?” “So I have my doubts about this [calling system]. This is suspicious, why are match referees or on-field umpires not able to see those flexing up to 35 but me with 16 degrees?,” said Hafeez, who has appeared in 50 Tests, 200 ODIs and 81 T20 Internationals.

When contacted Hafeez said he had taken permission from the PCB before giving the interview. He also said that he gave an hour-long interview but everyone was just focusing on 15 seconds of his talk. “People should read the entire interview and see in what context things were said not just focus on a few lines,” he said.

Hafeez, who is fighting to regain his place in the Pakistan team, underwent a re-assessment of his bowling action at the Loughborough University in England last month where it was revealed that the amount of elbow extension in his bowling action was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC Illegal Bowling Regulations.