HYDERABAD – West Indies off spinner Sunil Narine has been banned from bowling in tomorrow’s final of the Champions League T20 tournament in India.
Narine, who plays for Kolkata Knight Riders, was reported for a second time in two matches for a suspect action following Knight Riders’ semi-final victory over Hobart Hurricanes yesterday.
He was reported by the umpires after Knight Riders had won by seven wickets to qualify for the final.
Narine was already on the tournament’s warning list after he was also reported following Knight Riders final group match, against Dolphins.
The rules of the tournament state that a bowler is banned from bowling further in the tournament if he is called a second time while on the warning list.
A Champions League T20 release reported that umpires Rod Tucker, S Ravi and Vineet Kulkarni had reviewed footage of the semi-final and “felt that there was a flex action in Narine’s elbow beyond the acceptable limit when bowling during the match.”
Narine is expected to attend the Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai, which has been accredited by the ICC as a testing centre for suspect bowling actions, to have his action tested.
The ban will not affect his duties with West Indies since it is confined only to the Champions League T20.
He is the lone specialist spinner in the West Indies’ squad which will play India in five One-Day Internationals starting on October 8, followed by a one-off T20 on October 22.
Narine is also expected to be selected for the three-Test series against India, starting October 30.
Narine, the fourth bowler to be reported in the tournament, after Lahore Lions’ Adnan Rasool and Mohammad Hafeez, and Dolphins’ Prenelan Subrayen, is the first bowler to be reported a second time.
His absence from the finals will be a major blow to Knight Riders who are seeking to secure the double of winning the Indian Premier League and the Champions League T20 in the same year.
Meanwhile, Knight Riders’ coach Trevor Bayliss has expressed surprise over Narine being reported for an illegal faster ball.
“Nothing’s been said in the last three years he’s been with KKR. So that was a bit of a surprise,” Bayliss said.
Bayliss, however, said the spinner was confident of overcoming the problem.
“Sunil is a very placid character. It takes a bit to ruffle him. In fact he’s very confident. It might be a problem. In fact he does know there’s a concern now. He’s got something he can go and work on.
If he had known beforehand there’s a concern, he’d have been able to do some work on it in the past,” reasoned Bayliss. (CMC/EZS)
