When a heavyweight is floored, it is difficult for him to stand on his feet without the help of an equally strong heavyweight. So is the case with the touring England team, which landed in Pakistan, claiming that they are here to win the Test series and not to win friends.
They had the support of the International Cricket Council (ICC) umpires Australian umpires Darrell Hair and Simon Taufel, who helped them draw the first Test at Multan, but in the second Test at Faisalabad, the heavyweights were knocked down by featherweight Pakistan by 22 runs.
And in the third and final Test, the young Pakistan team did not allow them to recover from the shock of the Faisalabad Test and won the series 2-0.
Umpires Darrell Hair and Simon Taufel along with another ICC umpire Billy Bowden used all their tactics to help England win the series, but the home side was proved to be a hard nut to crack.
In the very first Test, their axe fell on young pacer Shabbir Ahmed, who after being cleared a month ago by the ICC on the basis Australian experts, Professor Bruce Elliot and Darryl Foster of Western Australia University, was included in the team.
The lanky pacer gives Pakistan a balance with different types of angle of his delivery, which was not liked by the ICC men in black and white.
Shabbir was happy to be included in the team, but his joy proved short-lived when the notoriety of biased Australian umpires Darrell Hair and Simon Truffle and Pakistan's TV umpire Asad Rauf expressed their concerns over his bowling actions during certain stages of the first Test in Multan.
They claimed they suspected "illegal" action as a result of deterioration in his action from the third day of the match, in particular when bowling the "effort" ball and short-pitched deliveries."
This time Shabbir was not alone. All-rounder Shoaib Malik was also the victim of the ICC umpires. However, the 29-year-old pacer, who grabbed five wickets in the first Test was replaced by medium-pacer Rana Naveed-ul-Hassan for Faisalabad and Lahore Tests, while Malik was retained as batsman.
RUDE SHOCK:
No one can feel the pinch of the trauma the young fast bowler is facing. The ICC umpires' verdict came as a rude shock to Shabbir Ahmed, whose bowling action was challenged twice in a year and four times in his short cricketing career since 1998.
Earlier after watching Shabbir's bowling in the nets and during the early stages of the Multan Test, the ICC umpires said they were satisfied with his action.
Shabbir, disturbed by the ICC officials' ruling, is reported to have said: "This is too much." Out of frustration, young Shabbir, whose confidence was shaken, said he was thinking of quitting the game.
Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, not agreeing with the ICC rules, has said he has failed to understand how a bowler, who has been cleared by the scientists after proper tests, can be called again by umpires.
"What is happening is that the scientists are saying one thing and the umpires another thing, but I feel sorry for the affected bowler," he said. Woolmer said the process, allowing the bowlers to straighten their arms at the time of delivery by 15 degrees, needed a clear definition on such bowlers. "I think the tall bowlers like Glenn McGrath, Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, just to name a few, also indulge in such practices. But their action was never challenged."
PCB'S SILENCE:
Strangely enough while Woolmer criticised the ICC rules, the officials of ad hoc administration of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), instead of taking up the issue with the ICC, preferred to keep mum and withdrew Shabbir from Faisalabad and Lahore Tests.
The PCB bosses, who have decided to send Malik to Australia for remodelling his bowling action and send Shabbir's "TV footage" to Australia for review by the experts, have tacitly accepted the ICC umpires' allegations. However, their report will be handled under the ICC's revised bowling review process. The analysis involves a detailed comparison between the action of the bowler in the laboratory and the action he used in the match in which he was reported.
EXPERTS VIEWS:
Criticising the ICC rules and the inept attitude of the PCB ad hoc administration, cricket experts in Karachi said instead of sending Shabbir's "footage" to Australia for assessment, the PCB ad hoc administration should have challenged the ICC officials' findings.
They apprehended that Shabbir might face the fate of former fast bowler Atiq-ur-Rahman, who was reduced to a mediocre bowler after changing his bowling action. As a result, he faded away from the national cricket scene, only to be remembered in record books as the fastest bowler the country has ever produced.
They recalled that in the early eighties, Atiq emerged on the Karachi cricket scene as a fast bowler. After giving impressive performances with the leather in the domestic season, he was selected to represent Pakistan in Under-19 and Under-23 against India, Sri Lanka and Australia.
His performances forced the national selectors to consider him for the 1982 Indian tour, led by Zaheer Abbas. Though he was among the 16-member squad, he could not make his debut in the Test cricket. When Imran Khan took over from Zaheer Abbas, Atiq was again selected for the 1984 Australian tour. Imran was impressed by his speed, line and length, but was not satisfied with his bowling action, which was similar to that of Australian legend pacer Jeff Thomson.
Imran described him as the fastest bowler Pakistan has ever produced, but he did not like his bowling action and advised him to change his bowling action. In 1987-88, Atiq was handed over to former pacer of Pakistan Khan Mohammad to "correct" his bowling action.
His bowling action was changed to the satisfaction of Imran and others who mattered in the then Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP), but the boy lost his speed and accuracy. With the correction of his bowling action, his career came to an end. He, however, restricted his cricket activities to his department, Habib Bank Limited, where he is working as an officer.
Had the PCB taken care of the first ICC objection on Shabbir's bowling action and hired former bowling legends from the West Indies and Australia, today's Pakistani bowlers could not have faced such a traumatic situation.
Still, it is time that the PCB bosses wake up from the deep slumber and activate the NCA on the pattern of MRF Pace Foundation.
Now the national selectors are in a fix, as Pakistan will be deprived of not only Shabbir and Malik, but also of utility player Shahid Afridi, who has been banned for one Test and two One-day Internationals (ODIs) for allegedly damaging the pitch.
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