Sunil Narine

Calcutta: Kolkata Knight Riders off-spinner Sunil Narine has been reported for a suspected illegal bowling action following his side’s 36-run win over Dolphins in the Champions League Twenty20 Group A match in Hyderabad on Monday.

The charge was laid by on-field umpires Anil Chaudhary and Chettihody Shamshuddin along with third umpire Kumar Dharmasena and specifically relates to Narine’s quicker ball.

Under CLT20 guidelines, Narine may request for an official assessment from the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s suspect bowling action committee.

Narine has been placed on the tournament’s ‘warning list’ but will still be able to play. However, if he is reported again while still on the warning list, he will be suspended from bowling for the remainder of the tournament.

Narine claimed figures of three for 33 in his four-over spell during the win over Dolphins.

The Knight Riders next match will be the semi-final against Hobart Hurricanes on Thursday.

He is the fourth bowler to be reported during the tournament, joining Mohammed Hafeez and Adnan Rasool of Lahore Lions and Prenelan Subrayen of Dolphins.

However, being reported in the CLT20 has no impact on a bowler’s participation in international cricket.

Narine is currently the leading wicket-taker in this year’s CLT20 with 11 wickets in four games at an average of 7.45, also the best in the tournament. He also has the most wickets in the six-year history of the CLT20, accumulating 38 in 19 matches, eight more than Dwayne Bravo and Doug Bollinger.

Narine’s career bowling average of 8.81 in the CLT20 is almost a full eight runs better than Lasith Malinga, the next best bowler on the list who holds average of 16.40 for his 25 wickets, while Narine’s CLT20 career economy rate of 4.61 is more than a full run better than Brett Lee in second place at 5.71.

Narine has been Knight Riders’ most lethal weapon over the past four seasons and has helped the franchise win two IPL titles in last three years. Very often his four overs have decided the course of a match in the IPL and CLT20.

The International Cricket Council has instructed the on-field umpires to be vigilant about suspected chuckers with Pakistan’s off-spinner Saeed Ajmal already suspended from bowling in competitive cricket.

The CLT20 crackdown is in line with the ICC's fresh impetus on suspect actions. BCCI officials insist they are following their own rules.

The common factor in all the four reported cases has been that of ICC elite umpire Kumar Dharmasena, the winner of the ICC best umpire award.

In IPL, so far there have been four cases of bowlers reported for suspect actions.

In 2011 the IPL announced a four-member illegal bowling action committee, and its own suspect action policy came into place on February 1, 2014.