I commended Darryl Hare when he called Muttiah Muralitharan for chucking. I believed he was protecting cricket from turning into baseball. As a bowler, I thought it was important to preserve straight-armed bowling and that it was unfair on me and other straight-armed bowlers to let Murali under the radar.
I still think what Hare did was right, given the rules of the day, but since my childhood I have gotten to know my cricket history a lot better. Rules about acceptable bowling have gone through a lot of change.
When cricket was introduced to Australia, "all bowling at that time was underarm", as Jack Pollard states in his comprehensive history of Australian Cricket. As time went on, "grubbers were replaced by balls that bounced on a good length".
It was not until the 1820s that bowlers started to bowl roundarm. This was controversial in the utmost. "The style was criticised by opposing players and some spectators as unfair and unsportsmanlike".
In 1863, Tom Hogg was no-balled for lifting his arm above the shoulder. Two years later, intercolonial matches featured overarm bowling as legal and to this day it is accepted practice.
A bit of bent arm has been part of the game for a long time. B&W footage of some of the bowlers who are now in Australia's Hall of Fame shows that several Australian bowling legends had actions that looked a little sus.
Even McGrath apparently is a chucker. He bends his arm to 12 degrees at times, when the maximum for pace bowlers is 10 degrees. In fact it is a physical impossibility to keep the arm perfectly straight, but a large number of Test bowlers go beyond the legal limits. It's time to stop kidding ourselves. This is not chucking. A small flex of the arm gives the bowlers a bit of kick and it adds spice to the game.
When Murali bowls, the game does not resemble baseball in any way. Murali bowls from a run up, on a length, on a 22m pitch and aims to hit stumps. His action is dubious, but it is not the same as a baseball pitch by any stretch of the imagination. Changes such as shorter boundaries, limited overs and more cross-batted strokeplay are changes that make the game much more like baseball than Murali's action does. The changes must be kept within reason, but fifteen degrees is very small.
Shane Warne has queried the results of scientific tests on bowlers, stating that the naked eye is the best thing for judging a throw. The naked eye is possibly the best thing for judging whether someone is too fat to be an international level fielder, but it is not as good at judging a chuck. Of course, Warne would suggest using the naked eye: the naked eye always seems to turn a blind eye to the chucking of the Australian bowlers discovered by the lab tests. It is possible for a bowler to keep their arm straighter in lab tests, but this does not explain why results would show McGrath up as being a chucker. The lab tests are in my view far better than Warne's armchair judgments.
It seems ironic to see Shane Warne, of all people, saying the umpire's decision with the naked eye is best. This is the player who stands about for several minutes after every LBW decision that doesn¡¯t go his way in seeming disbelief. I also don't see Warney complaining about the technology of the third umpire giving the Australians an occasional run out decision.
This is just more whinging from the Australians about those "black c**ts", as Lehmann referred to them. We whinge about their pitches, even though we prepare pitches suited to our fast bowlers and batters when they tour Australia. And now we whinge about their bowlers. Dare I suggest that Warney's stance has something to do with the world record? Go text your girlfriend about it Warnie you poor little darling. They always pick on the fat kid, don't they.
Umpires already have to judge 5 degees for spiners, 7.5 degrees for medium pacers and 10 degrrees for fast bowlers and now the number is simply increasing to make that judgment easier. The game is changing, as it always has and always will. The chucking rules are outdated. We are at risk of missing out on enjoying possibly the greatest bowler of all-time. Murali has bamboozled hundreds of batsmen. His flight is brilliant. His variety is strategically perfect. His line and length is of the finest quality. Murali plays some of the finest cricket ever demonstrated by a Test match player. And it is time that the chucking rules changed with the knowledge presented by the technological age.