ICC clears bowling action of Bangladesh's Taskin, Sunny

Dhaka, Sep 23 (IANS) The International Cricket Council (ICC) has cleared Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed and spinner Arafat Sunny to bowl in international matches after finding their remodelled bowling actions to be legal.

The bowling actions of Sunny and Taskin have been found to be legal, and both bowlers can now resume bowling in international cricket, effective immediately, an ICC media statement said on Friday.

Bangladesh announced a 13-man squad for the first two One-Dayers of the Afghanistan series, which starts on Sunday, and left a spot reserved for Taskin in case he gets the nod from ICC.

With the ban on his bowling lifted, Taskin is now available for the Afghanistan One-Dayers.

The selectors, however, wanted to give Sunny, who was kept out of the 20-man pool announced ahead of the final squad, more time to get used to his new action.

Taskin and Sunny were reported for suspect illegal action after Bangladesh's World Twenty20 opener against the Netherlands in Dharamsala earlier this year.

After independent assessments in Chennai, ICC barred both the bowlers from bowling in international cricket for illegal actions on Mar 19.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board then appealed against the ban on Taskin two days later but the judicial commissioner upheld the suspension following a review hearing.

The duo then returned home to begin working on remodelled actions while Taskin played for Abahani in the Dhaka Premier League.

To stay a bit more focussed on remodelling his action, Sunny did not play the first portion of the league, joining the tournament midway.

They kept on working on their actions even after the league had ended. BCB later tested out their actions with 2D cameras.

After the specialists were satisfied with the results, they were sent to Brisbane for ICC's assessment, which took place on Sep 8.

Before this Bangladesh spinners Abdur Razzak and Sohag Gazi, too, returned from ICC imposed bans after remedied actions.

--IANS

sam/dg