Controversial Pakistani pace man Shoaib Akhtar needs to polish up his history when he claims that New Zealand match referee John Reid was behind his temporary banning from international cricket last summer.

The Pakistani pace ace ripped through New Zealand in Auckland yesterday to take five wickets for 19 runs, his best return in One-Day Internationals.

However, doubts about the validity of his bowling style surfaced again.

In a press conference which at times verged on the bizarre, Akhtar claimed he had never changed his bowling action, something that had been obvious to all in the audience while by refusing to draw the racist card against John Reid he introduced the subject matter anyway.

What needs to be remembered in this whole saga is that in Perth last year a report was made to the International Cricket Council by Reid, who had been approached by three umpires who stood in the Australia-Pakistan series - Peter Willey (England), Peter Parker and Daryl Hair (both Australia), with concerns about Akhtar's bowling action.

Having received the complaint, Reid then got film together, in the required manner and sent it off to the ICC.

The relevant information was sent to the ICC committee members on the bowling actions committee. Reid was one of those members.

So too were: Michael Holding (West Indies), Kapil Dev (India), Imran Khan (Pakistan), Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka), Bobby Simpson (Australia) and Nigel Plews from England, and representatives from Zimbabwe and South Africa.

A telephone conference call was convened by Sir Clyde Walcott and it was agreed that Akhtar's action justified his suspension for remedial action to be done.

The only person on the committee of nine who did not get involved in the discussion was Imran, who was on holiday and not able to be contacted.

No sooner had the decision been made than the now former president of the ICC, Jagmohan Dalmiya over-ruled the decision and said Akhtar could play in the next ODI.

The committee on bowling actions was then sacked and replaced by a new panel which mainly involved the chief executive's of ICC member countries, although Dayle Hadlee is now New Zealand's member of the panel. He is part of a New Zealand panel on bowler's actions, along with John R Reid, Stephen Boock and Brian Aldridge.

The fact of the matter is that Akhtar was never cleared by the ICC. He was cleared by Dalmiya.

And the ICC panel never clears players. It allows them to bowl again after action has been taken on their bowling style.

If they re-offend, they have to go through the same process again.

Australian captain Steve Waugh referred to the Akhtar incident in his recently published diary of last season, Never Satisfied (Harper Collins), when Dalmiya's decision was based on Akhtar being given a clearance because the deliveries under scrutiny being short-pitched balls which can't be bowled in ODIs.

"I reckon this argument has more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese.

"The most obvious is that many bowlers still bowl short-pitched stuff in one-day cricket, despite the no-ball threat.

"As well, it is my understanding that most of Shoaib's deliveries that have been examined and questioned have, in fact, been fast yorkers or at least balls of a very full length."

New Zealand players will have some sympathy with Waugh's views.

Akhtar may have hoped that by raising the matter at the first post-match press conference it would disappear.

Chances are that by re-writing history from his own perspective, and admitting that he had made no changes whatsoever to his style, he has opened up the whole case again.

© CricInfo