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Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has admitted that he bowled with an illegal action during his County Championship stint with Surrey.
In September 2024, Shakib’s action was reported by the standing umpires while he was playing for Surrey in the County Championship match against Somerset.
Following that, Shakib completed an independent assessment at Loughborough University, which found that the elbow extension in his bowling action exceeded the 15-degree threshold as defined in the Regulations.
Now, the all-rounder has spilled the beans behind his illegal action and revealed the reason behind bowling with an illegal action.
“For Surrey I bowled more than 70 overs in the match, which I had never done before. I was very tired after bowling long [spells],” said Shakib while speaking on YouTube’s “Beard Before Wicket” podcast.
“I think I deliberately bowled with some illegal action,” he continued
Shakib stated that he was considering issuing a warning; however, the umpire reported it in accordance with the law.
“I played back-to-back Test matches in Pakistan. We won that series, and then I went to play those four-day matches. The only thing I was thinking the umpire could have done was just warn me first, at least. But it is in the rules, so they had the right. I didn’t complain,” he revealed.
The 38-year-old also recalled that he had gone to take the test but failed, and then he trained for a couple of weeks and returned to Surrey.
“I went to do the test, I failed. And then I saw my test. I was like, ‘okay, so these things are happening’.
Then I had to train for a couple of weeks, so I went back to Surrey again, and they were kind enough to help me. I did two sessions, and I was back to normal. I was like, ‘it’s so easy’,” Shakib concluded.
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