Brian Vitori

The 28-year-old was reported by the match officials following his side’s non-broadcast match against Nepal on Sunday. Zimbabwe’s Brian Vitori has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect after the Event Panel of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 confirmed that the left-arm fast bowler uses an illegal bowling action. The 28-year-old was reported by the match officials following his side’s non-broadcast match against Nepal on Sunday. As per Article 3.6.2 of the ICC Illegal Bowling Regulations, Vitori’s bowling action was filmed in the next match he played after being reported, which was against Afghanistan on Tuesday, and the video footage of his bowling spells were provided to the Event Panel of Helen Bayne and Mark King, who are both members of the ICC Panel of Human Movement Specialists, for analysis and assessment. Following its review, the Event Panel concluded that Vitori employs an illegal bowling action, and, as such, in accordance with Article 6.5 of the regulations, he has been immediately suspended from bowling in international cricket. Vitori’s suspension shall remain in place until such time he submits to an assessment of his bowling action at an ICC approved Testing Center and the assessment concludes that his bowling action is legal. Meanwhile, the Event Technical Committee of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 has allowed the Zimbabwe cricket team to replace Vitori with Richard Ngarava.

Ngarava is a left-arm fast bowler and a lower-order batsman, who has played in six ODIs, taking eight wickets and scoring 12 runs. His last ODI for Zimbabwe was against Scotland in Edinburgh in June 2017.^[1]

• Previous Suspensions

Vitori was originally suspended from bowling in January 2016. However, he was permitted to resume bowling in June 2016 following an independent reassessment where his action was found to be legal. He was again reported during the Bulawayo ODI against Sri Lanka on 29 November 2016 and was subsequently suspended for 12 months in December 2016 after an independent assessment revealed he had employed an illegal bowling action. On 8 January 2018, Vitori underwent a reassessment of his bowling action at the High-Performance Centre in Pretoria and was allowed to resume bowling after his action was found to be legal. Vitori ’s reporting was dealt with in accordance with the regulation, for a Specified Event, which includes the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018.

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