BY DANIEL NHAKANISO Zimbabwe national cricket team middle order batsman and spinner Roy Kaia has been reported for a suspect bowling action during the one-off Test against Bangladesh which ended on Sunday at Harare Sports Club.
The world cricket governing body, the international Cricket Council (ICC) announced in a statement on Wednesday that the match officials’ report, which was handed over to the Zimbabwe team management, cited concerns about the legality of the 29-year-old off-spinner’s bowling action.
“Video footage of Kaia’s bowling action from the match will now be scrutinised by an Expert Panel as attendance and assessment at an ICC accredited testing centre is not possible due to various restrictions resulting from Covid-19. Kaia is permitted to continue bowling in international cricket until the conclusions of the Expert Panel’s review are known,” the ICC said.
Kaia found the going tough in the one-ff Test which Zimbabwe lost by 220 runs against Bangladesh. He was dismissed without troubling the scorers in both innings of the Test match while also failing to take a wicket in 23 overs he bowled in both innings.
An Illegal Bowling Action is where a player is throwing rather than bowling the ball. This is defined by the ICC as being where the player’s elbow extends by an amount of more than 15 degrees between their arm reaching the horizontal and the ball being released.
Match Officials in international cricket use the naked eye and their cricketing experience to decide whether they believe a player may be using an illegal bowling action and, if so, they will submit a report.
The player is then tested at an ICC Accredited Testing Centre, using state-of-the-art technology and supervised by experts in the science of human movement. This testing process provides an answer as to whether the player is in fact using an illegal bowling action and, if so, they will be suspended from bowling until they have modified their bowling action and undertaken another test successfully.
