Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Saturday confirmed that following remedial work and retests, the bowling actions of Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal and Sohag Gazi of Bangladesh have been found to be legal, and the players can resume bowling in international cricket.
In advance of any retest, a player who has been banned from bowling in international cricket, is required to identify the various types of deliveries he wants assessed, with a view to bowling those types of deliveries in international cricket should they be tested as legal.
At the retests, it was revealed that the amount of elbow extensions in both the off-spinners' bowling actions for all their deliveries was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC regulations for the review of bowlers reported with suspected illegal bowling actions.
The umpires are still at liberty to report Ajmal and Gazi in the future if they believe they are displaying a suspect action and not reproducing the legal actions from the retests.
Ajmal had opted out of the Pakistan team for the World Cup beginning February 14 in Australia and New Zealand because of suspect bowling action, but since he has been cleared it remains to be seen whether he can be included in the squad or not. A team can ask for a replacement for an injured player in the squad and an ICC Committee will take a call on that.
To assist the umpires they have been provided with images and video footage of the two bowlers' significantly remodeled legal bowling actions.
The retests were performed at the Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai Jan 24.
Ajmal was reported after the first Test match against Sri Lanka in Galle in August, while Gazi was also reported in August after the second One-Day International against the West Indies in Grenada.
Both Ajmal and Gazi failed the initial tests, which were performed Aug 25 at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, and Sep 19 at the Cardiff Metropolitan University, respectively.
