Former West Indies captain Viv Richards has said the ICC's crackdown on bowlers with suspect actions has not come at the correct time and it should have been done a while ago.

"In my opinion such action should have been taken some time ago and on a wider basis because these guys have been there for quite some time," Richards said in Colombo, where he is with the West Indies A team as technical director.

"I am not sure because West Indies are touring India, there is going to be a World Cup next year, whether all this has something to do with it, I just believe the timing has to be good. With the next World Cup around the corner this is not the correct time to take such measures."

West Indies spinner Sunil Narine was reported twice for a suspect action during the recent Champions League T20 and was barred from bowling in the final and other tournaments organised by the BCCI. The West Indies Cricket Board took a precautionary measure of withdrawing him from the India tour "to have his action assessed."

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Would dere ever be a right time? Why go into one of your premiere tournaments with a cloud of suspect actions? Now dey have 4 1/2 months to clean up dere actions.

In reply to Maispwi

Narine has been playing in the CPL for 3 years and then all of a sudden just before the WI are to play India,the Indian umpires find his action illegal.
I might be young but I was not born yesterday!!!!!!!!!

Viv is right, this clamp down on suspect actions is late, but now it is better late than never.

In reply to Dukes

you meant IPL??

In reply to Dukes

So is his action suspect or not?

In reply to Dukes

Ajmal has been playing around the world after he was reported and cleared in 2009 prior to being called recently. Dats 5 years. His straightening was in the region of 40 degrees.

Narine was reported after his first regional tournament in 2011 so dere was always a cloud over his action. Again if you find nothing suspicious about his action during dat maiden super over against the Red Steel den we on different wavelengths.

Here is my conspiracy theory. Narine was deleiberately left out of de WI team by de Board, after dey got info dat he was under scrutiny, citing late arrival so he could work on his action but it was still faulty so de ICC elite umpires reported him in de CPL so he wud have more time work on the action before the World Cup.

I disagree with the prevailing wisdom of Lloyd and Richards and others. There is no good time to report an illegal action. The cricket establishment has winked at illegal actions since Murali first came under scrutiny. Whatever the merits are in that case, it is more than time to act. I suspect they did not want to do so until Murali was safely in retirement. They could not handle the ambiguity. Now they are acting, and I applaud them. Better late than never. I am sorry that one of our stars has become a casualty of the mess, but so be it. Cricket will benefit in the end. I do not mind a tweak of the rules to give spinners a bit of a break, maybe the LBW rules or something, but not the very definition of bowling itself. We are not baseball.

In reply to Cameron

I believe Richards is saying it should have been done a long time ago.

In reply to spider

I agree. But as I said, waiting further would simply make things worse. Better late than never.

Narine is out. He needs to work on his action.

That's the reality. Sooner we deal with that reality and get on to the business at hand....playing cricket with who is there and bowlers that need to work on their action working hard at it.....the better

In reply to imusic

I entirely agree.

I disagree; going into d world cup, all batsmen will know that they will be facing.....ammm, proper balls, from spinnas!!!? Humour is always good, eh? Heheheheheh.