WEST Indies legendary batsman Sir Everton Weekes believes more should be done to identify illegal actions of regional bowlers during their formative years.The issue has come to the fore in recent years, with several of the region’s bowlers called for illegal bowling actions.
Most recently was Windies top spinner Sunil Narine, whose career now hangs in the balance after being called for an illegal action during the Indian Premier League, called for the third time in fewer than 12 months. Weekes, however, believes more can be done at the high school stage.
“If the situation (suspect action) is noticed at the beginning, it should be dealt with at that stage. With the authorities being very stringent on bowling actions, it is best to be dealing with such problems at age 10, 11 or before, rather than later,” he said.
Weekes admitted, however, that he found the Narine situation peculiar, stating that initially he thought the concern with was with the spinner’s straighter delivery and the ball that went away from the right-hander.
Now the authorities have a problem with his off-break. I find it all rather peculiar,” he said.
Weekes, however, backed Narine to make a full recovery.