Crackdown should have happened after World Cup - Waqar

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has said the ICC's drive against suspect actions should have taken place after the 2015 World Cup, contending that the reporting and testing of players could affect the preparations of their respective teams ahead of the tournament.

Pakistan offspinner Saeed Ajmal was one of six players who have been reported for a suspect action since June 2014 and was banned from bowling in September after tests showed that his average elbow extension was almost twice the ICC's 15-degree limit. New Zealand's part-time offspinner Kane Williamson and Sri Lanka's Sachithra Senanayake have also been banned recently. Four bowlers, including West Indian offspinner Sunil Narine and Pakistan's Mohammad Hafeez, have been reported for suspect actions during the ongoing Champions League Twenty20.

"Is this the right time to enforce the protocols and the technology?" Waqar told AFP. "I am asking this because every team plans ahead of the World Cup, and the suspensions will badly hit the teams whose bowlers got suspended or questioned. I mean the protocols and the technology should have been enforced after the World Cup."

The issue of tackling suspect actions had come up during the ICC's cricket committee meeting in June, when there was a general consensus among members that the methods used to detect illegal actions were imperfect. It had recommended changes to help match officials get more support from biomechanists in order to identify illegal actions with "more confidence".

The crackdown has also brought attention to a bowler's delivery of the doosra, and Waqar suggested that it was natural for the bowler's elbow to flex while delivering the doosra.

"When a bowler bowls a doosra, his elbow must bend beyond limits, that's natural and I think a solution must be found," he said.

Waqar also added that the questions over Hafeez's bowling action had impacted the confidence of the player: "I know they have reported him under a process but that is confidence-shattering for one of our key bowlers."