The Marylebone Cricket Club, the guardians of the Laws of Cricket, have moved to clarify the rules about unfair defensive bowling. This follows criticism of England's tactics in the recent Test series in India, when Nasser Hussain asked spinner Ashley Giles to bowl down the leg side at Sachin Tendulkar and several of the other Indian batsmen. The tactic was roundly condemned in the press, and now MCC have been invited by the International Cricket Council to suggest a way to close an apparent loophole in the regulations for Test cricket.

Ted Dexter, the former England captain who is now MCC's president, said that the leg-side bowling had been "a matter of pushing the Laws to their limit to gain advantage".

Speaking exclusively to Wisden.com at Lord's, Dexter added: "The umpires could have been stricter on the leg-side wide, and what we detected was an anomaly in the ICC playing conditions - just one sentence - which as it were allowed the umpires not to intervene.

"Since then we've been in touch with ICC - I've been in touch personally with Sunil Gavaskar, who is chairman of the ICC cricket committee, and we've corresponded."

During the series, Gavaskar made his feelings about England's tactics known during his TV commentary stints, calling the leg-side attack "boring".

Dexter concluded: "We're thrilled that ICC has asked [MCC] for our proposals as to how to deal with it properly in the Laws and the playing conditions, and we'll see where we go from here."

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