18 November 2004	Thursday	05 Shawwal 1425

COLOMBO, Nov 17: Muttiah Muralitharan has been publicly rebuked by the Sri Lanka cricket board after questioning the bowling action of Australia's leading pace bowlers.

Muralitharan stirred up controversy when he said during an interview with Melbourne's Radio Sport 927 that Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee flexed their arms by 12, 13 and 14-15 degrees respectively.

At present, spinners are permitted five degrees of bend, medium pacers 7.5 and fast bowlers 10, although last week an ICC committee recommended all bowlers be allowed to straighten their arms by up to 15 degrees.

Sri Lanka Cricket has demanded an explanation from leading off-spinner Muralitharan and insisted that he seek their prior permission before agreeing to any more media interviews.

"Sri Lanka Cricket was perturbed by statements attributed to Mr Muralitharan in the recent past," a media statement read." "Mr Muralitharan is a contracted player and making statements to the media without having obtained the requisite permission is a violation of the said contract," it added.

"Sri Lanka Cricket has called for his explanation in this regard." Muralitharan, who has been sent a letter by the board, has said his comments were misrepresented. "I never called anyone a chucker," Muralitharan told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"All I said is that if you are accusing me of going over the level of tolerance, you have to look at your own bowlers too," he said. Muralitharan is set to resume bowling his controversial doosra, a disguised leg break, after the ICC committee recommended the change in the rules. The doosra has been measured at around 14 degrees.

Muralitharan travels to Australia next week to meet Melbourne-based surgeon David Young who will assess his recovery from shoulder surgery in August. He hopes to return to top-class cricket in January when Sri Lanka will be touring New Zealand.

Meanwhile, The ICC on Wednesday rubbished Australian media reports that it had drawn up a list of bowlers with suspect actions even as officials moved to put a lid on the controversy.

Media reports down under said the sport's governing body planned to target bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan, Harbhajan Singh of India and Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka for their bowling actions.

But ICC general manager David Richardson, a former South African wicket-keeper, said in a statement the reports were "completely untrue." "To say that the ICC has a specific list of bowlers under scrutiny is completely untrue," said Richardson, who earlier this month chaired an expert sub-committee in Dubai on the issue of illegal deliveries.

"The sub-committee was convened to look at the overall picture of the current regulations for dealing with potentially flawed bowling actions. "It dealt with principles and processes, not personalities. It had no mandate or responsibilities to report on specific players or their bowling actions and at no stage did it do so.

"It is disappointing that this report has appeared without any attempt to discuss this issue with the ICC. One phone call prior to publication could have dealt with this."

The committee, which includes former Test stars like Sunil Gavaskar, Aravinda de Silva, Angus Fraser and Michael Holding, recommended a new rule allowing bowlers to straighten their arms by up to 15 degrees.

If the proposed new ruling is accepted by the ICC chief executives' committee of the 10 Test-playing countries at Melbourne in February, Muralitharan will be allowed to bowl his controversial doosra delivery which turns the other way from his normal off-break. Muralitharan, Test cricket's second most successful bowler with 532 wickets, was earlier this year banned by the ICC from bowling the doosra. -Agencies