5 suspended bowlers who returned after a modified action

December 1995. A wiry young wrist spinner from Kandy is plying his trade in Australia. He bowls a perfect off-spinner, turning the ball from the fifth stump into the batsman. The batsman is clueless. Moments later, the bowler is clueless as well. Umpire Darrell Hair is standing next to the non-strikers’ end, left-hand outstretched, calling out a no-ball.

The young Muttiah Muralitharan went to the crease, figuring out if he had overstepped. As captain Ranatunga approached the scene of crime, Hair clarified that the call was for chucking. He faced a lot of catcalls and bionic tests, still managing to finish his career as the most successful bowler in the history of the game. To bring some uniformity in the rule, the ICC stamped a 15-degree rule to clean illegal actions.

It doesn’t always turn out to be like Murali. Apart from the stigma attached to being called a chucker, suspended bowlers are required to suppress their natural rhythm and bowl with a remodelled action, if they harbour hopes of bowling at the international level.

Here are five bowlers who came back after tweaking their action:

Kane Williamson

New Zealand’s current captain isn’t their stock bowler, but is a useful addition to their bowling reserves, sending down his harmless off-spinners. In 2014, Williamson was banned from bowling at the highest level when his action was found to be suspect during Kiwis tour of the West Indies.

He remodelled his action, making it comply with the regulations and returned to bowl. In 52 Tests and 93 ODIs, he has 29 and 27 wickets respectively.

After remodelling, he now bowls with a classic off-spinner’s free-flowing action, giving the ball a nice loop.

Sachithra Senanayake

The tall off-spinner from Colombo is one of the handful of mystery spinners to emerge on the international scene in this decade. He uses his fingers to impart variation in his deliveries, and relies on subtle movement of his wrists to deliver the wrong ‘uns.In a thirteen month period in 2014, Senanayake was one of the nine bowlers hauled up by the BCCI for a suspect bowling action. He had it remodelled and returned to play against the England team in an ODI at the fag end of 2014.

Before correcting his action, Senanayake bowled with a visibly bent arm and a quick jerk of his elbow.

He was one of the stars for the Kolkata Premier League in the 2013 edition, picking up nine wickets from 8 matches.

Saeed Ajmal

Ajmal was a late bloomer at the international level, but made quick amends and evolved into a match-winning off-spinner with a large repertoire of variations. For three years, he was the number one ranked bowlers in ODIs, troubling the batsmen with his shrewd bowling, especially the doosra.

All this came crashing down when he was reported to be having a suspect bowling action in 2014. He had to remodel it, and seemed to lose much of the previous venom associated with his deliveries.

Ajmal even got into disciplinary problems after launching an attack on the ICC’s stand over illegal actions. The PCB even issued a show-cause notice on him.

Bottom line: Ajmal survived the illegal action saga, but is not the same bowler that he used to be.

Sunil Narine

The drab West Indian bowling attack of the early 2010s got a breath of fresh air with the arrival of Sunil Narine, a mystery spinner with the skill-set to trouble the best. Bowling stifling lines at a nagging trajectory, Narine has the ability to make the ball do just enough to entice the batsman, and then trap him.

His fledgeling international career was cut from the wings when all of his variations were reported to have been delivered exceeding the 15-degree permissible action limit. He had already remodelled it once using biomechanics before his ODI, but had to go through another series of corrective measures after the Champions League T20 2014.

He changed his action one more time, which was given the green light by the ICC this year.

Pragyan Ojha

Once a regular in the Indian Test setup, Ojha now finds himself out of national reckoning after he was banned from bowling at the competitive level due to an illegal bowling action. Since then, his place in the Indian whites has been taken by Ravindra Jadeja.

He last played for India in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell Test, earning the man of the match for his 10-wicket haul. The slide started when the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) got clear directives from the BCCI, barring Ojha from bowling even at the domestic level.

He’s been on the comeback road ever since, remodelling his action to comply with the rules. Even though he hasn’t made it to the top yet, he still harbours dreams of playing for the Indian team.