Cricket South Africa have released the following response to the ICC’s ban of Raisibe Ntozakhe after her bowling action was reported as contravening ICC regulations.

STATEMENT BY CSA

Independent tests conducted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Ntozakhe’s bowling action revealed that the off-spinner’s bowling action is illegal and contravenes Article 6.1.2 of the ICC Regulations for the review of bowlers reported with suspected illegal bowling actions. The assessment revealed that all of her deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations.

Ntozakhe was reported during ICC Women’s Championship ODI between the West Indies and South Africa on 16 September 2018 in Barbados and subsequently underwent an independent assessment of her bowling action on 28 September 2018 at the University of Pretoria.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) acknowledges and respects the findings of the ICC’s assessment and have taken immediate steps to work with the player in the aim of rehabilitating her as soon as possible for her return to action. She will be based at the CSA Centre of Excellence and will work with High-Performance manager Vincent Barnes to remodel her action.

‘The timing of this issue for Raisibe and for our World T20 squad is clearly inopportune but we need to deal with it. We will work hard to remedy her action and have her retested as soon as practically possible,’ said CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe.

‘We are fortunate to have invested in an ICC accredited laboratory in South Africa and this will certainly make a quick turnaround possible.’

The national selection panel will now discuss possible replacement options regarding the ICC Women’s World T20 with an announcement to be made shortly.

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