Clive Lloyd questions Sunil Narine's suspension from CLT20; calls for ICC intervention

Sunil Narine

Former West Indies captain and current chief selector Clive Lloyd has questioned the motive behind suspending Sunil Narine from bowling in the recently concluded Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) tournament, saying that the Caribbean off-spinner has been bowling with the same action for all these years.

“He has been bowling over the years with the same sort of action. Now all of a sudden it has changed. What has changed, I don’t know. What did they do? I want to know the procedure,” Lloyd said on Friday.

Narine missed the CLT20 finals against Chennai Super Kings on Saturday and was subsequently withdrawn for West Indies’ upcoming tour of India by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), fearing that he could be reported in the international arena, as well, and that will, in turn, hinder their preparation for the next year’s World Cup.

“Do you warn him? Do the officials say ‘I have found something and I want it remedied?’ You can’t just ban him from bowling just before an important tour like this and the World Cup coming up. It destroys the individual’s ability as such and I think you may end up destroying someone’s career.

“This guy has been doing well playing for KKR for the last three years. if you look at his action, he has been doing pretty much the same and I want to know what is it that has been found that they ban him and not say something like, ‘listen, you have a bit of a problem and you have to rectify it’,” he added further.

West Indies were informed in advance

The two-time World Cup winner also revealed that a source informed the West Indies team management that Narine will be observed closely before the team arrived in India.

“Before we came here we were told that they were going to call Narine, so it’s quite obvious that something must have been said somewhere. And all of a sudden, this guy who is supposed to be one of the best bowlers around – and (Saeed) Ajmal for that matter, how many Test wickets does Ajmal have – and all of a sudden his bowling action is suspect.

“The point I am saying is something should be done before all this comes to this point. I am disappointed in the sense that our bowler could suddenly be out of the tour,” the 70-year-old said.

“We don’t know. Nobody has told us anything. Nobody has written a letter. That is the thing about it. Something should be said to us. We are left high and dry. All of a sudden, the guy is not playing in a tournament he has played for the last three years,” Lloyd added.

The ICC has not given any explanation regarding the issue, as the tournament that is conducted by the BCCI, Cricket South Africa and Cricket Australia doesn’t fall under its radar.

Calls for ICC to intervene

“He has been an integral part of the KKR and the tournament. What are you then saying about the tournament? Are you saying that that the tournament has probably allowed people who have got bad actions. I don’t know because they might have international umpires in this tournament all these years.

“I hope [the ICC gets in touch] rather soon because I think it’s wrong the way they have gone about it and I have been involved in the ICC for years and I think you (CLT20) cannot just ban a guy just like that.

“This is a guy who has played for us all over the world, not only in West Indies. We have been to New Zealand, played in the West Indies. All of a sudden, this guy has got a suspect action. I am not happy, I would like to say it strongly,” a vivid Lloyd concluded.

West Indies played a warm-up one-dayer at the Brabourne stadium on Friday and will play another warm-up game against India A in Mumbai before moving on to Kochi for the 1st One Day International. The series involves 5 ODIs, 1 T20I and 3 Tests.