LAHORE, June 29: Australian bowling coach Daryl Foster has criticized the International Cricket Council (ICC) rules on chucking and called them "silly". Foster, who attended the first National Cricket Academy's graduation class on Tuesday, said that the ICC allowed five per cent bend to fast bowlers and 10 per cent to the spinner which had no logic.

Foster, however, said there was a need to rectify the chucking at the grassroots level, otherwise, cases like Sri Lanka's Muttiah Murlitharan would continue to crop up. He said off-spinner Tariq Mahmood, who represented Pakistan in the Under-19 World Cup ths year and was called for throwing, was a good future prospect and efforts were required to rectify his action promptly.

Foster, who recently worked with medium-pacer Shabbir Ahmed, said the bowler was far from the ICC rule for correct delivery and he tried to rectify his action. Shabbir was called in the last one-dayer of the five-match series in New Zealand early this year and he was still under the observation of the ICC umpires.

Foster said he would watch Shabbir in the Asia Cup training camp. Asked what he would suggest to the PCB to check the menace of chucking, Foster said first of all the local umpires should have an eye on the bowlers and report to the PCB if anyone is found to be involved in it.

Then the PCB should rectify their action in its cricket academy. Foster also disagreed with the point of view of his compatriot Greg Chappell that a lot of technology was ruining the natural beauty of the game.

He said he believed that the game was being cleaned with the introduction of modern technology. About the National Cricket Academy, Foster said it has three purposes - improve technique, fitness level and skill of the players - and hoped the NCA could achieve success as it was one of the best academies in the world he had ever seen.

Former Test bowler and NCA coach, Aqib Javed, said the academy was preparing its own coaching programme in which the inventions of the Pakistani players would be highlighted.

He said the art of reverse swing, particular batting strokes of Saeed Anwar, how off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq introduced doosra and other achievements of the Pakistani cricketers would be mentioned in that programme. He said the programme would begin in six month and an IT expert, Doug Harris, was coming on July 4.

Aqib claimed that the Pakistani's coaching programme would meet high standards and its certificate would be recognized by the Cricket Australia and other boards also. Highlighting the programme of the graduation classes, NCA administrator Col Mohammad Pervez said it was a 14-week course.

The 25 participants in the course would get coaching for 10 weeks and in the remaining period they would play a home series - two four-dayers and three one-dayers - against a South African Academy team, he said.