History of Cricket

2002

In 2002, at the ICC's Cricket Committee meeting in Cape Town, the committee addressed findings that nearly all bowlers flex and extend their arms to some degree when bowling. This meant that, by the book, most bowlers were bowling with illegal actions. To avoid any potential problems - such as lawsuits if a bowler was called and then sued, citing evidence that most other bowlers were also bowling illegally - the ICC adopted guidelines on interpretation of the law. Following the biomechanical findings, they adopted a maximum allowable elbow straightening angle of 5 degrees for slow bowlers (i.e. spinners) and 10 degrees for fast bowlers. This covered pretty much everyone, as then understood.

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