Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

Is Muttiah's action legal?

  • Yes, it's fine

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No, he's a chucker

    Votes: 18 30.0%

  • Only chucks the Doosra

    Votes: 37 61.7%

  • Don't know

    Votes: 5 8.3%
  • Total voters
    60
Top Contributors
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

schwab2clarkson;295131 said:
He doesn't bowl wrong'uns mate.
Click to expand...

You're going to have expand on this and educate me in these matters.

Have a look at this link on cricinfo -

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/srilanka/content/player/49636.html

In the paragraph that starts....."He bowls marathon spells" it goes on to say "His chief weapons are the big spinning offbreak". Now, I'm new to this game and I'm assuming that you know a great deal more about spin bowling than I do and this is what these forums are good for.......

So,

1. He's a right arm bowler.
2. The ball just described above has to fall into 1 or 2 catergories surely - it's either finger spin or wrist spin? Now to my untrained eye and from my emperical observation and research I'd argue that his technique has a lot more to do with wrist spin than finger spin and in the same article above it goes on to describe how wristy his action is?

So can we agree that he bowls wrist spin?
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

dave he doesn't bowl wrong'uns but he does bowl with a hell of alot of wrist due to his double jointed wrist. There is effectively the elements of wrist spin and finger spin its just he can move his wrist so much it does add alot of the spin.

on the chucking front it depends what you define as throwing as he does bend his arm 13 degrees in his delivery but officially the limit is 15 set by the icc

personally I don't believe he chucks and there is video footage of him bowling with a steel plaster cast over his elbow to prevent his straightening at all, and he can bowl with it on all be it painfully
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

A lot of the debate about his action is down to a slight optical illusion when he bowls, plus a misunderstanding of the law with regards to bowling actions.

Firstly, he uses a lot of shoulder rotation when bowling, which gives the arm a funny appearence. There is movement from the shoulder rather then the elbow.

Secondly, it's fine to bowl with a bent arm etc, it's how much the arm straightens that is the issue. Murali's arm straightens a little but it's pretty much bent the same all the way through the delivery.
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

gundalf7;295315 said:
dave he doesn't bowl wrong'uns but he does bowl with a hell of alot of wrist due to his double jointed wrist. There is effectively the elements of wrist spin and finger spin its just he can move his wrist so much it does add alot of the spin.
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Gundalf - what's he doing then? If it's not the massive flick of the wrist and release out of the back of the hand that puts the off-spin on the ball how's he imparting the off-spin? Are you saying this is finger spin?
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

maybe he does bowl googlies then, it is a bit of a mix as his grip is still the same as for an orthdox off break bowler like mushtaq but there is still much more finger work than with a normal leg spinner bowling a googly. Depends on what you define as a googly really but he is a wrist spinner as that is what imparts most of his spin. Though off break bowlers do still need to use their wrist to impart some spin, the only bowler who an create spin without using their wrist is mendis with the carrom ball grips
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

Right this arguement is stupid at the end of day. He doesn't chuck!!! he was born with a deformity that means his arm can never straighten its always slightly bent and then add the 15% on and its going to as an optical illusion is going to look like a chuck. He bowled with an arm brace on to prove it.... YouTube - Proof that Muttiah Muralitharan does not chuck watch and then you can all shut up and just take he does not chuck. The only people who cry about him " chucking" are australians because they now as a nation they are on the decline( How good is Hayden at the moment and his boyfriend Ricky isn't exactly performing) in the cricketing world and can't take that warne was not " the god of spin" just another player compared to murali..... and come on i'm expectin the back lash of England being slagged off but bring on the ashes 09 and if they are forced in bringing Hayden we know they're aint much in the state level is there .... and rumors of warne returning has to show desperation.
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

Phil I've got no issue with Murali's bowling I'm just really interested in what it is that he does and how he get the amount of spin on the ball - I love his bowling and yeah it does seem to be one particular nationality that have the main gripe with his action. You only have to go on youtube and look at the comments on there with each of the videos featuring him and you get a sense of who's saying what about him.
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

schwab2clarkson;295131 said:
He doesn't bowl wrong'uns mate.
Click to expand...

Schwab2clarkson - do you bowl?

I think you'll find that Murali is a wrist spin bowler and he bowls with the right arm. Primarily he's an off-spinner. Off - spin bowled right armed with a wrist action is Wrong Un mate and this is his stock ball. His other one which probably combines the flipper and is bowled out of the back of the hand is his Doosra.

I'm sure if you were to look into this in more depth or try and bowl in the style that he does you'll arrive at the same conclusion. Try here for a start - Cricinfo - The art of the obvious you'll find some clues.

His main deliveries are all wrist spin actions and combinations of wrist spin techniques. It maybe that he is so talented that he also bowls finger spin but I can't establish that.

So if you're still of the opinion he doesn't bowl wrong uns - tell me what you call his off-spinning stock ball?

I'm still open to more discussion on this and would love to see your evidence that contradicts mine?
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

someblokecalleddave;296810 said:
Schwab2clarkson - do you bowl?

I think you'll find that Murali is a wrist spin bowler and he bowls with the right arm. Primarily he's an off-spinner. Off - spin bowled right armed with a wrist action is Wrong Un mate and this is his stock ball. His other one which probably combines the flipper and is bowled out of the back of the hand is his Doosra.

I'm sure if you were to look into this in more depth or try and bowl in the style that he does you'll arrive at the same conclusion. Try here for a start - Cricinfo - The art of the obvious you'll find some clues.

His main deliveries are all wrist spin actions and combinations of wrist spin techniques. It maybe that he is so talented that he also bowls finger spin but I can't establish that.

So if you're still of the opinion he doesn't bowl wrong uns - tell me what you call his off-spinning stock ball?

I'm still open to more discussion on this and would love to see your evidence that contradicts mine?
Click to expand...
He's an off spinner mate and not a leg spinner.
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

Yeah - all I'm asking is that you accept that he's a wrist spinner, yeah I've conceded that his stock ball is an off-spinner but he does and can bowl Leg Breaks.
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

Murali doesn't bowl wrong'uns as his stock ball. A wrong'un comes out of the back of the hand, with the palm facing down. Murali's stock offspinner comes out of the front of the hand, with the palm facing up. Visually speaking, the ball is on the outside of the arm in the wrong'un (and standard legbreak), and on the inside of the arm with Murali's stock offspinner (and doosra).

Despite the amount of wrist Murali uses, his stock ball is still an offbreak. It is an offbreak, with an added flick at the end, which is only made possible by his freakish shoulder (the angles wouldn't be right without it). The doosra is simply the same ball, but with the wrist rotated so that the flick of the wrist and fingers spins the ball in the other direction. This is only possible due to Murali's extra-flexible wrist, as well as his shoulder, which allows the wrist flick to begin with.
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

Good explanation - that's a lot more convincing, now I'm coming round to the schwab2clarksons arguement - but it's all still very interesting and is making me think about how I get the ball to spin in unusual ways which what I'm after.

Cheers

Do you know where there's some slow motion footage of Murali's hand as he releases close up?
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

Gundalf and schwabclarkson you're right......


If you look at this clip YouTube - Muttiah Muralitharan | Super slow motion footage you can see what happens and yeah Gundalf/schawbcalrkson you're right it's not a wrong un and I was completely wrong. If you watch this the main difference is the fact that his wrist rotates clockwise in order that the ball comes out of his up-turned hand. Whereas the wrong un you turn your hand anti-clockwise to get the ball to come out of the back of the hand.
 
Re: Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action

It’s a good spin but Murali’s not a chucker

It’s a good spin but Murali’s not a chucker The Roar - Your Sports Opinion

Adam Gilchrist recently attacked Muralitharan’s bowling action in his autobiography, True Colours. Millions of Australian cricket fans nodded in agreement. However, I’ll stick my neck out and say I don’t believe he is a chucker. I believe he is a great bowler.

Muralitharan bowls with a bent arm action.

People who believe that Muralitharan chucks often judge by looking at a picture of Muralitharan bowling and then see a bent arm. Therefore he chucks.

But let’s then look at the rules of the game.

Definition of fair delivery, the arm from MCC
A ball is fairly delivered in respect of the arm if, once the bowler’s arm has reached the level of the shoulder in the delivery swing, the elbow joint is not straightened partially or completely from that point until the ball has left the hand. This definition shall not debar a bowler from flexing or rotating the wrist in the delivery swing.

The fact is that, in the laws of the game, there is nothing in there that says anything about bowling with a bent arm action. The problem is straightening that bent arm that causes the player to throw. For most people in the world, it is impossible to bowl with a bent arm action and not straighten it.

That’s why a bent arm is often the best indicator to tell if a person is chucking.

However, due to a birth deformity, Muralitharan can’t straighten his arm fully, causing him to bowl with a bent arm action and creating that ‘optical illusion’.

People then say, “doesn’t the testing show that Muralitharan chucks as he straighten his arm by 15 degrees?”

Now to the controversial 15 degree rule.

People seem to think that the rule was there to solely accommodate Muralitharan. The study actually shows that virtually all bowlers (99 percent of them) unintentionally straighten the elbow joints.

This study was done using footage of bowlers in the past and present, extensive bio-mechanical testing of random current first class and Test bowlers in the lab by Australian scientist in the University of Western Australia.

This has been checked by cricketing legends such as Michael Holding.

They conclude that virtually all bowlers chuck and they chuck to the same degree as Muralitharan. The difference is that Muralitharan’s action is more scrutinised due to his bent arm action, while other bowlers escape the scrutiny as they don’t have that physical deformity.

So how does Muralitharan spin the ball so much then?

It’s actually due to another deformity. He was born with a double jointed wrist, which allows him to be the first wrist-spinning off spinner in the history of the game.

It’s an irony that he was born with one physical deformity that helps him become one of the greatest spinners of the game, and born with another deformity that made so many people believe he is a chucker.
 
Re: Video Murali bowling with an arm brace on

Bump.

Murali is NOT a chucker, and the fact that 40 people have voted to say he is just shows pure ignorance. Murali's action is an optical illusion. In ultra slow motion you can see that he doesn't bend his arm. The fact he's seen in the video above bowling the offy and doosra with the arm brace on proves he's not a chucker. All the rotation comes from the shoulder and the wrist, not the elbow. He does not straighten the arm more than 15 degrees, so it not a chucker. End of.
 
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