Kirtley vows to prove he's no chucker

Certainly, none of them no-balled him for throwing, as is their right under the laws of cricket.

In fairness to Ali, he has been able to study slow-motion replays of Kirtley in action and, as a result of what he saw during Wednesday's fourth game here, the former Test wicketkeeper for Pakistan filed his damning report.

The procedure now requires England to appoint an advisor to work with Kirtley over the next six weeks and they announced last night that bowling coach Bob Cottam was their chosen-man. However, it seems unlikely that any alterations will be made to the player's action.

"Brighton University proved beyond any doubt that my arm is straight through my bowling action," said Kirtley. "I'm sure nothing has changed. I've always had supple joints and my arm hyper-extends which explains, perhaps, people's doubts."

The ICC introduced a new three-part procedure earlier this year to deal with the problem of throwing and to put the accent on helping, rather than hounding, suspect bowlers.

Kirtley is the sixth player from around the world to be reported since then. Ali's decision does not prevent Kirtley from bowling at any level and he wants to appear in tomorrow's final international against Zimbabwe.

England, who are fully supportive, will now be tempted to select him simply to underline their confidence in his action, even though the signs earlier this week were that Kirtley would miss out in order to give Chris Silverwood a first outing. It might be best for them to stick to Plan A.

Ali could report Kirtley a second time and then one more adverse mention in dispatches during the next 12 months would leave the bowler facing the possibility of a one-year ban.

Despite yesterday's events, England will go into the final match convinced the tour has been a success.

It started amid political controversy and has been lively throughout in a cricketing sense with three players - Nasser Hussain, James Foster and home batsman Andy Flower - reprimanded following a verbal bust-up.

But England have played decently against admittedly dispirited opponents, turning an 11-match losing streak into a winning trot.