PCB in talks with Saqlain to help Ajmal

Former Pakistan offspinner Saqlain Mushtaq has said he is in talks with the PCB to help Saeed Ajmalremedy his bowling action though an arrangement is yet to be finalised. While the delivery of the doosra has come under increasing scrutiny in recent times, Saqlain, one of the pioneers of the delivery, said it was possible to bowl it with a clean action.

"It is a matter of concern," Saqlain told ESPNCricnfo, that all of Ajmal's deliveries were found to be illegal. "I got a call from the PCB on Tuesday. We are talking but I haven't yet committed. They have given me short notice. They asked me if I would help Ajmal. I would love to. I said definitely, but we are trying to see if the dates can be worked out. I am hopeful."

Saqlain said he had not been paying close attention to Ajmal's action in the recent past. The last time he saw Ajmal bowl live was at Lord's in July, when the MCC played Rest of the World.

"I thought he must be bowling legal deliveries so I was focusing on his tactical aspects: how he is setting his field, which ball he would deliver next, how he would trap the batsman," Saqlain, who was on commentary for the game, said. "In that match I was speaking on those lines."

Saqlain said he had not worked with Ajmal previously, apart from an informal chat during Pakistan's tour of England in 2010, when they discussed a variation that did not concern Ajmal's stock ball or doosra.

Several concerns have been raised over whether the doosra can be bowled with a clean action, and Saqlain said it could be delivered within the ICC's 15-degree limit for straightening of the elbow. "Of course, it can be bowled within the rules," he said.

A spinner begins to face technical issues, according to Saqlain, if his muscles have not developed properly. "You have to work on four important things: endurance, strength and power, flexibility, and finally quickness or speed," he said. "These are the things to be sorted out first, even before we arrive at the bowler's action, run-up, loading and follow-through."

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