Doosra to be taken off soon?

The very use of ‘Doosra’ as a delivery has made life difficult for many batsmen across the world with spin stalwarts such as Mutthiah Muralitharan, Harbhajan Singh ensuring that their opponents played a guessing game.

However, there is bad news for them as former Aussie spinners such as Shane Warne have raised doubts on the credibility of this delivery. Aussie spinner Ashley Mallett has termed it nothing but plain ”chucking’.

What is Doosra and what’s the big deal?

Ever since its introduction to the cricketing world, the ‘doosra’, an unorthodox finger delivery bowled mostly by off-spinners of the sub-continent that moves away from a right-hander as opposed to the normal delivery that comes back at the right-hander, has raised eyebrows and caused heated debate over its legitimacy.

Pakistan’s Saqlain Mushtaq, who is touted to have brought this delivery to the world, soon had Harbhajan and Murali joining the ranks and have bagged many wickets with this art.

“There was unanimous agreement that the off-spinner’s Doosra, should not be coached in Australia,” Mallett wrote in the Adelaide Review on Monday. He went on to point out that the ICC needs to take a call on this matter. “Until such time as the ICC declares that all manner of chucking is legal in the game of cricket I refuse to coach the doosra.” he added.
Recently, Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was found himself in the wrong side of the law when he was reported by the umpires while bowling a doosra during the second ODI against Australia in Dubai in April. His bowling action was later cleared.
Similarly in May this year, South Africa’s Johan Botha was warned against bowling doosra, when his delivery was ruled illegal by the ICC during a match.
Will this result in Doosra getting chucked out? We’ll wait and see!