Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
THE ICC's announcement that as of March 1 all bowlers will be permitted to straighten their bowling arm up to 15 degrees has left the purists of the game hopping mad.
According to the purists, the law governing that aspect of the game is explicit about what is a throw. The law sets out clearly how to deal with those who break the law.
Regardless of what bio-mechanics experts say about 15 degrees being the point where any straightening will become visible to the naked eye, no amount of straightening should be tolerated, and in bending the law of the game to accommodate a few renegades, the ICC is simply playing politics.
Almost to a man, those against the change believe that it will eventually hurt the game; to the extent that it won't be long before it will be all throwers and no bowlers.
There are those, however, who believe that the change could be good for the game, that the tolerance level of 15 degrees will make it easier for the straightening of the arm to be detected and therefore to be corrected, and that those who really love the game should endorse it even if it allows a little straightening, and therefore a little throwing.
So far, the debate is interesting, and although the fear of a game of throwers, or chuckers, is real, history may well be on the side of those who are in favour of the change.
Those against may be well advised to pause for a while and look at the history of the game, the changes over the years, and the reaction, at the time, to those changes - to changes that have been good for the game and particularly so to a couple of those involving the art of bowling.
FIRST RULES
The first known rules of the game were laid down in 1744, and as far as bowling the ball was concerned, they were restricted to under-arm, and nothing but under-arm, until 1828 when it was changed following an incident at Lord's six years earlier.
According to historians of the game, one John Wiles of Kent was called repeatedly for throwing while bowling against the MCC, and when he could not take it anymore, he jumped onto his horse, rode out of Lord's, and never played the game again.
Wiles was called for throwing because, with his arm raised to the level of his elbow, he was bowling round arm.
In another recorded incident, players of the All England team refused to play a match against a set of professionals unless William Lillywhite and James Broadbridge, two round-arm experts, refrained from throwing.
In 1835, the law on throwing read:
"The ball must be bowled, and if it be thrown or jerked, or if the hand be above the shoulder in the delivery, the umpire must call no ball."
Twenty-seven years later, in 1862, one Edgar Willsher was called for throwing at The Oval when he bowled over-arm, and two years later, in 1864, over-arm bowling, as it is today, was legalised - much to the anger of many fans and many batsmen.
DANGER OF OVER-ARM
The feeling at the time was that the ball bounced too much, and because of that, over-arm bowling was "dangerous to life and limb".
As written in the book, The Changing Face of Cricket, by Learie Constantine and Denzil Batchelor, the fear was that over-arm bowling "would kill scientific defensive batting - if not the batsmen."
By bowling over-arm, bowlers were also able to get the ball to bounce and to turn from off to leg - and according to Constantine and Batchelor, or whomever they got the story from, those deliveries, those "curious freaks of nature", were so deadly that many batsmen thought them unfair and refused to bat against them.
It is 141 years since over-arm bowling was legalised, over-arm bowling paved the way for offspin bowling, and it is interesting to note that offspin bowlers those slow bowlers who turn the ball from off to leg have been suffering in recent years, that against good batsmen and on good pitches they find it difficult to get wickets.
These days, they are probably the main culprits when it comes to throwing the ball, and in an effort to get wickets, a few of them have developed a deadly delivery called the 'doorsa'.
According to a number of experts, however, the "doorsa" cannot be bowled without straightening the arm, it can only be thrown.
If that is so, then it stands to reason that like fast bowlers who straighten their arm, those who attempt to use it should be called for throwing.
Years from now, however, the straightening of the arm to any degree may be legal, and who to tell, the "doorsa", probably the biggest invention in bowling since B. J. T. Bosanquet turned up with the googly in 1900, may be as common-place as over-arm bowling, offbreaks, leg breaks, googlies, and even bouncers.
