The International Cricket Council has dismissed media reports indicating that it had received a letter from the Board of Control for Cricket in India asking it to review the action of Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar.
"The ICC's bowling review process is very clear. It is a two-stage process, Stage One of which demands that the match officials send a report to the ICC if they are concerned that a particular bowler has an action that requires further examination.
"It is only ever an umpire or a referee that can file a report not a team, national board or the ICC. I would like to clarify that the ICC has not received a letter from the BCCI relating to Shoaib Akhtar's bowling action," ICC General Manager-Cricket Dave Richardson said in a statement on Wednesday.
Pakistan daily The News had quoted sources close to the Indian team as saying "the Indians,
through their Board, had sent a letter to the ICC asking it to once again review the bowling action of Akhtar, who they felt chucked quite a few times during an over, and the batsmen were facing problems in sighting his ball when he bowled short."
BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya also reacted sharply to the report, describing it as totally "baseless" and "false".
Over the past 12 months four bowlers have been reported to the ICC with potentially flawed actions.
Jermaine Lawson (West Indies), Sanwar Hossain (Bangladesh), Shabbir Ahmed (Pakistan) and Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) have undergone Stage One of the process after concerns were identified by members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Referees.
Lawson is available for selection for the West Indies after undergoing remedial work and recovering from a series of injuries that have kept him out of the game, Ahmed is back and played in Pakistan's ODI series against India after making some technical adjustments to his action and Hossain has played again for Bangladesh since his action was reported.
Muralitharan's action was reported on March 28 and he is still undergoing the review process with a report due to be provided to the ICC by Sri Lanka Cricket within a six-week timeframe.
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