Sunil Narine withdraws from World Cup 2015

The West Indies Cricket Board made an official announcement on the status of their frontline spinner, stating that the off spinner has withdrawn from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 after failing to alter his bowling action, reported during the Champions League T20 in 2014.

Narine hasn’t been playing international cricket since September 2014, and missed the Indian as well as South Africa series since then. Yet, the unorthodox spinner was included in the 15 men World Cup squad of West Indies. Evidently so, he has been the main wicket taker for West Indies in the shorter formats of the game.

While playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Champions League T20, he was reported for a suspect action, and was restricted from bowling in BCCI organized events. Narine has worked upon his action and all his deliveries were under the 15-degree flexion restriction in the preliminary reports. However, Narine demanded some time before he could return to international cricket, to get used to his new bowling action and bowl confidently, thereby opting to miss the World Cup.

Narine was the second ranked ODI bowler, following Saed Ajmal, who was also banned from bowling in international cricket, until he amends his bowling action. Thus, with just 17 days to go for the Cricketing carnival to commence in Australia-New Zealand, the top two bowlers of the format would have to watch their team mates play on their TV sets.