Bilal Asif reported for suspect action

LAHORE: It seems Pakistan cannot produce off-spinners with a legal action. After Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez, it’s the country’s new find — Bilal Asif — who has been reported for a suspect action.
Bilal, 30 was reported following the third ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare. He had made his international debut in the second game of the series, and took figures of 5 for 25 in the third ODI to help Pakistan win the series 2-1.
“Bilal’s action has been reported after the third ODI and we are following the procedure with the ICC,” said Intikhab Alam, Pakistan’s team manager. A total of eight deliveries from Bilal during third ODI were reported by the match officials.
Bilal will have to get his action tested at an ICC-accredited facility within two weeks of the PCB receiving the report from the ICC, but he is eligible to bowl in international cricket until the result of the test is out.
The development is a setback for Pakistan because Bilal had been retained in the ODI squad in Zimbabwe - after not playing the preceding T20Is - because they wanted to assess him ahead of the series against England in the UAE.
Bilal, who also bats in the top order, could have provided cover for Pakistan’s depleted spin stocks: allrounder Mohammad Hafeez has been banned from bowling in international cricket for 12 months because of an illegal action, and offspinner Saeed Ajmal has not been selected because he has proved ineffective after remedying his illegal action.
Bilal had played only 11 first-class matches, 21 List A games and nine T20 matches over a four year period before making his debut for Pakistan. He was considered to have a clean bowling action among the many contenders in domestic cricket, and though he wasn’t a full-time bowler his recent successes had got him noticed by the selectors.
Alam said the International Cricket Council (ICC) will now complete its process on Asif, with the player undergoing tests within 14 days to see if officials’ suspicions that he is bending his arm past 15 degrees — visible to the naked eye — are correct.
If his action is found illegal he will be suspended and will have to undergo corrective measures before he can play again.
The ICC also confirmed Asif’s action had been reported and said he would undergo testing, adding the player is “permitted to continue bowling in international cricket until the results of the testing are known”.
Pakistan has a history of bowlers with illegal actions with Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Shabbir Ahmed and Riaz Afridi all reported in the past.
Apart from Pakistan’s trio, Sri Lanka’s Suchitra Senanayake and Tharindu Kaushal, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, Zimbabwe’s Prosper Utseya and Malcolm Waller and Bangladesh’s Al-Amin Hossain and Sohag Gazi have been reported for suspect actions since the ICC crackdown.