How did chucking of this magnitude escape the naked eyes of match referee and umpires
View(s):Under normal circumstances umpires can’t see with their naked eyes if a bowler’s action has about 10 degrees of elbow extension. When it reaches about 15, it can arouse suspicion. However when a bowler extends his elbow by a staggering 25%, only an umpire with visual impairment will miss that. It is worse if umpires have been forewarned of an illegal action, to miss that altogether. That’s exactly what happened at Richmond Mahinda big match 2014.
A.K. Tyron was called for throwing during the youth world cup in UAE and SLC wrote to Richmond Principal with copies to relevant officials in the SLC, including match referees and umpires committee on 4th March 2014. It looks like Richmond Principal has not complied with the request to send him to SLC coaching department to get his bowling action corrected. Instead he used all his influence to get the dates given by University of Western Australia changed in order to play him in the big match.
In the big match Tyron wasn’t under any scrutiny for his action despite umpires being made aware of it in writing by the governing body of Sri Lanka. Not on a single occasion did an umpire speak to him about his action. He was allowed to continue his merry way in getting the ball to turn and bounce alarmingly.
Subsequently, when he was tested at University of Western Australia, he wasn’t there to take wickets, but to clear his action under laboratory conditions. If the extension of the elbow was a whopping 25% under those conditions, one can assume it would have been much higher in actual match conditions where he was desperately trying to get wickets. If it’s safely assumed he touched 30 degree elbow extension, how is it humanly possible that umpires can miss it. Officials in this match were not some third rate or novice umpires. They are well experienced ones who handled these situations before. Therefore, have they been forced to remain silent? It’s puzzling, it’s beyond belief, and it’s unreal.
It’s a known fact that he had bowled before and after the big match with an illegal action and there is no way he would have bowled legally in the big match. He destroyed Mahinda first innings which forced them to follow on which contributed to the ultimate result. Was that obtained fairly or legally?
This is not the only bowler who had an illegal action. Varuna Priyadharshana who had taken over 80 wickets this season, has a worse action. He is lucky not to come into the radar as he is a lower profile player than Tyron is. Varuna should walk into an under 23 team in the forthcoming season with his performance for Richmond. Everyone can make it a point to see if that is ever going to happen (if he is allowed to bowl), due to his illegal action.
Blame should not be put on these youngsters who have been brought through the ranks of junior Richmond teams. The coaches who have guided (or misguided) them over the years are totally responsible for ruining promising careers of these boys. Richmond old boys with wisdom should address the root causes for these problems if they want to produce outstanding individuals in every way. Therefore they have to clean up the system which is faltering, first. It includes behaviour problems displayed by players in attacking spectators which brought disrepute to Richmond too.
Indika Semage