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Journalism of Courage
JALANDHAR, Oct 20: It was a shock the young, wiry off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was not prepared for the International Cricket Council (ICC) inspired ban on his selection into Indian team over “suspect bowling action” has put a question mark over a budding career.
Not knowing when he will next be able to wheel his bowling arm over for India, the 18-year-old is dejectedly cooling his heels in his Jalandhar home.
Although dazed by his non-inclusion in the Dhaka-bound Indian team following the ICC directive, the lanky off spinner is confident about the correctness of his action.
“I am not afraid of any test for my bowling action, I am 200 per cent sure it is correct”, he says emphatically.
Singh also contests the claim of one of the international referees, Peter Van Der Merwe of South Africa. He says he never played any match in the triangular series between India, Australia and Zimbabwe about which Merwe had reportedly commented in his report on Harbhajan’s bowling action.
“Although I was selected for the triangular series, I never played any match. And the only Test match against Australia I played in Bob Simpson was the match referee in that”, he said.
Singh exclaims that not even India’s greatest spinners who had watched him had ever found fault with his bowling action. These include Bishen Singh Bedi, Parsanna and Venkataraghvan. “Not even my teammates or umpires have ever found anything wrong with my action”, he adds.
Harbhajan is, however, not sure what exactly is wrong about his action. “I am calling for video tapes of the matches in which my action has been questioned”, he says. He will be meeting the BCCI secretary J. Lele in Delhi on October 22 to know more details about the objections raised by the ICC.
His father, Sardev Singh is equally disappointed. “My son was under the wings of Dronacharya Desh Prem Azad (Kapil Dev’s coach) for two years. His action was never challenged”, he says.
Harbhajan Singh, who has played 13 one dayers taking 18 wickets and two Tests for seven wickets, hopes he will be cleared to play before the Indian team sets off for the New Zealand tour in December.
For the time being he can just wait for the ICC call for a `test’ of his bowling action. The venue could either be London or Bangalore.
Azad’s plea to BCCI
Chandigarh: Dronacharya awardee Desh Prem Azad today appealed to the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) to take all possible measures to defend young spinner Harbhajan Singh whose bowling actionis being suspected.
Azad in a statement said here that if Harbhajan Singh has a suspected bowling action then every off spinner in the world is a chucker. Harbhajan Singh is a genuine off spinner with a lot of variation in flight and spin with a good loop following the footsteps of E A S Prasanna and S Venkatraghvan.
He said that Harbhajan has already played against Australia at various places, including home series, Sharjaha and Kaula Lumpur where he bowled in front of international umpires of repute. None of these umpires warned him about suspected bowling action leave aside calling him a chucker, Azad said.
He said that the BCCI should take steps to Harbhajan Singh, who will be an asset to Indian cricket in years to come. Harbhajan was one of the students of the erstwhile cricket academy here which was run by Azad.
