New Delhi: West Indies fast bowling great Michael Holding has stirred a hornet’s nest by suggesting that umpires are scared to call bowlers for chucking because of political reasons.

Holding, called the Whispering Death in his playing days for his lethal bowling, said chucking could be weeded out from international cricket only when “people in authority have the backbone to do what is right and not what is politically expedient”.

“Once you see something with the naked eye, you should be reporting it and having it assessed and measured properly. The difficulty is in the politics surrounding it, and that is why people are afraid to report certain players,” he said in an interview to a magazine.

Holding felt that the ability of umpires to interpret potentially flawed actions was further complicated by issues like hyper-extension which could create optical illusions.

“That’s why there are problems, because the umpires will not call anybody on the field. I did something with Shoaib Akhtar at the end of the Test in Karachi, when I compared him with R. P. Singh to show that both have hyper-extension.”