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Champions Day Bonus Bets giveawayPaine slams “rubbish” call by ICC to put Kuhnemann through the wringer with action tests
Lachlan Geleit • February 28th, 2025 1:16 pm
Former Australian captain Tim Paine has slammed the ICC and match officials for reporting Matt Kuhnemann for a suspected illegal bowling action.
The left-armer was reported after the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, with umpire Joel Wilson reportedly among those pushing for the 28-year-old to be reported and have his action tested.
After Kuhnemann was cleared this week after going through rigorous testing of all of his deliveries, Paine thinks that the whole process was incredibly unfair on the Tasmania tweaker.
“I told you it was a bad call from the umpires, it was a bad call from the ICC, and it’s been proven that it was a bad call,” Paine said on SEN Tassie.
“Now of course he (Kuhnemann) is going to come out and say, ‘I thought the process was quite fair and I appreciated the professional manner’.
“The process is rubbish, it's garbage. He was taken through the ringer, and accused of throwing publicly when there's no need to.
“Like we said, there wasn't a ball that he bowled that was beyond 15 degrees. So how does he end up in that position?”
Paine called for the reports and testing to be done privately so as not to tar a player as a potential ‘chucker’ throughout their career.
“It (the process) should be done privately and then they are either rubbed out or they play on,” Paine said.
“I don't think people like Matthew Kuhnemann have to go through such a public process, be embarrassed, be shamed if you like of throwing the ball which is a terrible stigma to have in cricket, and to deal with that publicly.
“To then be cleared (and) he hasn't got any deliveries that he's bowled that are beyond 15 degrees.”
Kuhnemann is now free to continue his international career and will likely earn a place in Australia’s squad for July’s Test tour of the West Indies.
