Ruchira Perera's bowling action kept the television and radio commentators busy on Saturday and took up many column inches in Sunday's newspapers. But accusations of bowlers' improper actions are as much a part of cricket's history as betting and dodgy umpires. In recent years the most serious allegations have centred on two players from the subcontinent - Muttiah Muralitharan and Shoaib Akhtar. Both have been reported, both have been cleared by the International Cricket Council, and yet both have continued to be dogged by rumblings that all is not right. Medical reasons have been offered for their apparently flexible elbows, but these have hardly eased suspicions.

There have been two periods in the history of the game when throwing threatened to get completely out of hand. The first came at the end of the nineteenth century, when so many bowlers had suspect actions that the game was in turmoil. It took a concerted effort by umpires (acting on behalf of the authorities), who in effect no-balled the culprits out of the game. CB Fry was considered to be one of the worst offenders, and as part of the clean-up, he was no-balled nine times in succession. Fry, though, had the luxury of being able to concentrate on his batting; others did not and were forced to give up the game (Almanack Editor's Notes).

The second Golden Age of chucking came in the late 1950s when Australia unleashed several fast bowlers with dubious actions. The most infamous of these was Ian Meckiff, described by Jim Laker as "throwing all the time. If he tried to bowl fairly, I think he would do well to get a place in his local Grade side …"

Again the authorities agreed that the problem had to be tackled, and acted swiftly. There was even talk that Australia's 1961 tour should be postponed, so concerned were they that their fast bowlers would be cited. As it was, the main suspects were left out of the tour party and there were no incidents.

The unfortunate fall-guy of the clean-up turned out to be South Africa's young fast bowler Geoff Griffin. At Lord's in 1960 he entered the record books by taking South Africa's (and Lord's') first Test hat-trick, but it was a tarnished moment of glory. Griffin was no-balled for throwing eleven times, and despite efforts to work on his action, he played no more Test cricket and retired soon afterwards.

Meckiff himself finally came unstuck at Brisbane in 1963, when he was no-balled four times in his only over against South Africa. He retired immediately.

Although there have been some bowlers who have aroused suspicion without actually being called for throwing, there have been thankfully few problems in recent years, although media coverage has ensured that, when a problem has arisen, it has been headline news.

The most unseemly incident of recent years came at Melbourne in 1995 when Darrell Hair called Muttiah Muralitharan while standing at the bowler's end. In the one-day series that followed Murali was again called, this time by debutant umpire Ross Emerson, and the situation, hardly calmed by the antics of Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga, threatened to become a major incident. Muralitharan was eventually removed from the tour and his suspect action was subsequently put down to a medical condition which resulted in hyper-extension in his elbow. Coincidentally, Emerson's last appearance on the international stage came in a match involving Murali. Keen to be consistent, Emerson no-balled him in a fiery one-day international between England and Sri Lanka at Adelaide in 1998-99. Players called for throwing in Tests

E Jones	Aus v Eng	Melbourne	1898
GAR Lock	Eng v WI	Kingston	1954
GM Griffin	SA v Eng	Lord's	1960
Haseeb Ahsan	Pak v Ind	Bombay	1960
I Meckiff	Aus v SA	Brisbane	1963
Abid Ali	Ind v NZ	Christchurch	1968
SMH Kirmani	Ind v WI	Bridgetown	1983
DI Gower	Eng v NZ	Nottingham	1986
HK Olonga	Zim v Pak	Harare	1995
M Muralitharan	SL v Aus	Melbourne	1995
G Flower	Zim v NZ	Bulawayo	2000

David Gower and Abid Ali both threw balls deliberately. Gower chucked the last ball of the match to hand New Zealand an eight-wicket win; Abid Ali did so as a protest at the reluctance of the umpires to call Gary Bartlett, whose own action was deemed suspicious

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