Johan Botha passes biomechanical analysis

South African off-spinner, Johan Botha, who also plays for Adelaide Strikers, has passed the biomechanical analysis of his bowling action and is free to continue playing in CA Competitions, Cricket Australia (CA) said on Wednesday.

Botha was cited by umpires Simon Fry, Michael Graeme-Smith and Geoff Joshua in the RYOBI CUP match between South Australia and Victoria at Bankstown Oval on October 4.

Following the report, he was required to undergo biomechanical testing of his action at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra last Wednesday.

The analysis, conducted under the CA and International Cricket Council testing procedures, required Botha to bowl six balls from each of the deliveries in his repertoire; an off-spinner, quicker ball and flicker ball.

The testing found that Botha's action for all deliveries is under, or equal to, the allowable elbow extension of 15 degrees, with an average extension of nine degrees. Had any delivery in those 18 balls been deemed illegal, Botha would have failed the testing.

His action was captured by a 20 camera motion analysis system sampling at 250 frames per second, allowing for 3D measurement of human movement.

Commenting on the analysis, Cricket Australia Senior Manager Cricket Operations Sean Cary said: "The process for dealing with these matters is an international standard testing procedure.

"The bowling action in question has been assessed and we accept the results from the testing. Johan is free to continue playing for South Australia and Adelaide Strikers," Cary said.

Image: Johan Botha

Photograph: Morne de Klerk/Getty Images