LAHORE: Seasoned Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Hafeez, currently facing suspension from the ICC for his illegal bowling action, is travelling to England next week to have his action assessed there.

The action of 37-year-old Hafeez, an off-spinning all-rounder, will be assessed by biomechanics expert Dr Paul Hurrion and bowling coach Carl Crowe who has worked successfully with West Indies off-spinner Sunil Narine in rectifying his illegal action.

“Pakistan team’s bowling coach Azhar Mahmood, who is already in England, would be present during the assessment of Hafeez’s action,” said a PCB press release issued on Friday.

“After the assessment both the experts would devise a remedial work action plan that would be handed over to Azhar Mahmood for [its] implementation in Pakistan,” the release added.

“Azhar and IBARC comprising Ali Zia, Sajjad Akber, Saleem Jaffer and Aleem Dar would then work with Hafeez under the guidelines given by Dr Paul Hurrion and Carl Crowe for correctness of his bowling action. The committee would also perform periodical testing at PCB biomechanics lab at LUMS in Lahore to make sure Hafeez’s action is well within the allowable benchmarks before recommending that he may be sent for re-testing at any ICC-accredited biomechanics lab,” the press release further said.

“The above-mentioned plan has been discussed with Hafeez, who has agreed to follow it up after having gone through his initial assessment on his bowling action in England,” it concluded.

The ICC has suspended Hafeez from bowling on the basis of the biomechanics report of Loughborough’s Town England which conducted his test on Nov 1 after the bowler was reported on Oct 18 in the One-day International against Sri Lanka in the UAE.

It is the third time the bowling action of Hafeez, a veteran of 50 Tests, 195 ODIs and 81 T20 Internationals, has been declared illegal by the ICC.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017