The Cricket Thread 2014

[pooligan]

Malinga just to good for England olaftab Load of shite to say he is a cheat

[olaftab]

But he just is!

[paul_e]

Not that he's a cheat, more than any other country they'd have trained that action out of him, Sri Lanka have no qualms with letting players like him and Murali (and to an extent Dilshan who came through with a very odd batting technique).  It's technically legal but it's just not cricket.

[pooligan]

The rulers of the game seem happy with his action ,it's not as if he is a newcomer, he has been around a good while

[ashkar]

wow! amazing that people still think malinga chucks it!! chucking is when you bend your arm, malinga has a round arm action he has no chance to throw it. Jeff Thompson  Waqar Younis had  round arm actions. Malinga's action looks strange but doesnt make him a chucker. I knw a lot of boys use this action when they play with a tennis ball to prevent it bouncing too much or to skim it through the surface when playing beach cricket. Sri Lanka does well because they produce wonderful orthodox cricketers like sanga, mahela etc but also let the unorthodox shine.   

[aj2k77]

Sometimes his arm barely reaches above his head, it's like a baseball pitch, it's chucking, don't care how anyone tries to dress it up. Any game involving him I automatically write off as a serious game of cricket.

[lovejoy]

If Malinga is legal, then we should coach all players to do this.
I remember Muarli was legal because he got a letter from his doctor, did Malinga also have the same benefit?

[Villan For Life]

I've always thought that the ICC decided that Malinga's action was legal because they didn't want to upset the powerful Asian cricket boards.

[Villan For Life]

If Malinga is legal, then we should coach all players to do this.
I remember Muarli was legal because he got a letter from his doctor, did Malinga also have the same benefit?

I think Murali and Malinga have both been through the ICC bio-dynamics test which was developed by an Aussie university but funded by, yes you've guessed it the ICC.

[Dave Cooper please]

wow! amazing that people still think malinga chucks it!! chucking is when you bend your arm, malinga has a round arm action he has no chance to throw it. Jeff Thompson  Waqar Younis had  round arm actions. Malinga's action looks strange but doesnt make him a chucker. I knw a lot of boys use this action when they play with a tennis ball to prevent it bouncing too much or to skim it through the surface when playing beach cricket.

Then let them carry on playing beach cricket then, Malinga's action has no place on a proper cricket pitch. Because he's allowed (for some reason only known to the ICC) to be the only International cricketer to bowl the ball from nowhere near above his head he can release it from anywhere above the horizontal, it makes him almost impossible to read. He should have been told from the start to sort it out, after all, unlike Murali, he has no physical impairment stopping him from bowling with the same action as 99.99999% of other International cricketers.

[aj2k77]

No but he has some romantic story about bowling tennis balls in the streets of Colombo at milk crates and learning to keep the bounce down by chucking like a baseball pitcher, so it's all cool.

[paul_e]

wow! amazing that people still think malinga chucks it!! chucking is when you bend your arm, malinga has a round arm action he has no chance to throw it. Jeff Thompson  Waqar Younis had  round arm actions. Malinga's action looks strange but doesnt make him a chucker. I knw a lot of boys use this action when they play with a tennis ball to prevent it bouncing too much or to skim it through the surface when playing beach cricket. Sri Lanka does well because they produce wonderful orthodox cricketers like sanga, mahela etc but also let the unorthodox shine.   

just to get this straight can you confirm that you're comparing this:

to this:

Are you honestly telling me you don't see the difference?


As I said, his action isn't illegal, the ICC have been clear on that, but then KP switch-hitting wasn't illegal either but when Sri Lanka sulked about KP (remember Dilshan refusing to bowl) the ICC made it illegal because it wasn't in the 'spirit of the game' to circumvent the field placings like that.  Finn clipping the wickets on his run in wasn't illegal but the ICC made it so for similar reasons.  Again Sri Lanka were one of the nations that complained there.


My standpoint on it is that allowing Malinga to bowl that way at the top level of international cricket is not good for the game, the legality of it is largely irrelevant for me.

[ashkar]

Malinga doesnt chuck. end of story. he didnt go through any tests simply cause he has a round arm action. he has been bowling the same way for the last 10 years and if the english batsmen cant pick him then its too bad. Not a single cricketer of repute has even questioned his legality or the spirit of the game unlike murali.

[Monty]

Malinga's length is also pretty easy to pick up from his action - the more overarm the shorter, the rounder-arm the fuller. In a way his action could be described as a disadvantage sometimes.

[paul_e]

Malinga doesnt chuck. end of story. he didnt go through any tests simply cause he has a round arm action. he has been bowling the same way for the last 10 years and if the english batsmen cant pick him then its too bad. Not a single cricketer of repute has even questioned his legality or the spirit of the game unlike murali.

So you're sticking to the thought that him and Younis have the same action then?  Having a round arm delivery is fine, what's important is the angle of the arm at the point of release.  Malinga releases from a very low angle and a fair number of his deliveries are questionable as being above the horizontal but I've never seen him given a no ball for one of those.

There were plenty of complaints about Malinga when he came through, just because no complains any more doesn't mean those complaints didn't happen.

As I said, KP switch-hitting wasn't illegal (refusing to bowl to someone repeatedly is though, but Dilshan was allowed to do that) but the ICC forced through a rule change when Sri Lanka sulked about that.

Once again, any other country would've trained him to lean over a little to get his arm to an angle clearly above the horizontal, stil laloowing the round arm delivery and the 'skiddy' action that produces but not having most deliveries border on being released from an illegal position.

What are your thoughts on bodyline for example, there was nothing illegal about that but was it sporting and good for the game?