England’s cricketers continued to walk a diplomatic tightrope last night, as the controversy surrounding Saeed Ajmal escalated.
The Pakistani spinner has been accused by several pundits of using black magic and illegal wizardry to obtain an unfair advantage while bowling.
Respected Sky Sports analyst Bob Willis has been particularly forthright, accusing Ajmal of being “clearly a necromancer from hell, and an emissary of Satan who is using dark arts to tamper with the very stuff of life itself”.
Attention has focused on Ajmal’s performance in the first test at Dubai. Critics have pointed to his controversial ability to bowl straight, accurate balls which don’t turn much, and appeared to have a magical affect on the English batsmen.
So far the visiting side have hinted at their disquiet but fought shy of explicit condemnation.
“There’s obviously been a lot of stuff in the papers about whether Ajmal is the spawn of Beelzebub”, said Jonathan Trott. “But we’re trying as a team not to get distracted by that. Our job is just to get runs on the board”.
Matt Prior, meanwhile, implied the issue has caused unease in the dressing room. “Obviously these things get talked about, but the ICC have clear rules on diabolical sorcery. Ultimately they have a job to do, and we have to trust them to get on with it”.
Official ICC guidelines allow bowlers a maximum of 15% invocation of Satan’s powers at the popping crease, but the rules are fraught with interpretation. In 2008 umpire Billy Bowden no-balled Ajmal for casting a spell on AB de Villiers, but exercised no sanction against the bowler in last week’s test match.
England coach Andy Flower was less tight-lipped than his charges. “We’ve had a look at the replays and I’d be lying if I said we were happy. But I’ll keep my counsel till the series is over”.
It’s not the first time this issue has caused a headache for cricket administrators. In 2004 Muttiah Muralitharan was ordered to undertake remedial work after sawing a glamorous assistant in half and making a 20p coin appear from his ear against Australia in Galle. A subsequent analysis by the University of Perth revealed the bowler was receiving instructions from Paul Daniels via a concealed earpiece.
Maxie Allen
