When Saqlain Mushtaq discovered the mystery ball which he named doosra in ninties he had little idea that this ball would be subject of huge controversies that would change the face of cricket forever. There is a story which goes that when saqlain was perfecting this delivery in the nets Javed miandad who was Pakistani coach at that time used to tell him to ball the doosra every now and then indicating to him to deliver his unique delivery. So from here ball called Doosra emerged. When saqlain started revealing it in international cricket it mesmerized best of batsmen. They thought that ball would come into them like an orthodox off spinner but this ball moved away from right handed batsmen. This made saqlain a potent force in cricket.
Saqlain played many seasons for surrey and consistently topped bowling rankings season after season. In international cricket he was equally devastating. He once mesmerized strong Australian batting line up in Hobart claiming six wickets in the process. I clearly remember one ball he bowled to Shane Warne. He ball pitched on middle and took his bail off. This was the power of doosra. Before this there was no way an off spinner could have done this to a right handed batsman but now it was possible and game was changing dramatically.
Now slowly batsmen started to pick Saqlain and as years went by he became less menacing. One of the reasons behind this was that he over used his doosra which made him very predictable but during this stage Muttiah Muralitharan emerged with his version of doosra. Muralitharan had been called for suspect bowling action previously. His action is, in fact, scrutinized greatly by Australian umpires and media which lead to lot of controversies. Muralitharan was regarded as a vicious turner of the ball who could turn a ball even on glass. He had a vicious off break but as this was the only weapon in his armory he was predictable as compared to saqlain. When he perfected doosra he became more potent and thus became arguably the best off spinner in the world. He started picking wickets in abundance and there were few batsmen who could read him.
Two years back Muralitharan was reported for suspect bowling action by match referee Chris Broad after conclusion of Australia- Sir Lanka Test Series. There was a concern over his doosra. His doosra turns viciously as compared to Saqlain’s version and there is considerable straightening of the arm which was illegal according to rules of cricket.. ICC concluded that murlitharan should not be allowed to ball doosra but Muralitharan hit back at ICC indicating that he was being made a scapegoat over the years. He challenged that action of majority of the bowlers bowling today was not absolutely clean and this was proved through technology. According to results 80% of bowlers playing in modern cricket straighten their arms. This includes bowlers of caliber of Glenn McGrath and Shaun Pollock whose actions seemed clean with naked eye. This has also aroused shock among bowlers of past era who now are in doubt over authenticity of their actions.
The winner in all this controversy is Muralitharan who was criticized continuously during his career but now no one can point fingers at him as truth is for every one to see. Now in order to rectify this situation ICC has placed a limit of 15 degrees up till which bowlers are allowed to straighten their arms. So ICC in an indirect way has legalized chucking to save the game from jeopardy. This decision has led to mixed reactions round the cricket world but decision is pretty logical as there needs to a guiding line justifying and monitoring what 80% of bowlers do around the world. So a ball called “Doosra†has really changed cricket forever. The most interesting thing to note here is that Saqlain who discovered doosra was never called for having a suspect bowling action while his followers such as Muralitharan, Harbhajan Singh and Shoaib Malik all have been called for a suspect bowling action. But if action of some of these bowlers would have been absolutely clean hidden truths would never have been revealed and every one would have assumed that rules defined by cricket were never defied.
