I know I'm a bit late with this one but I have to add my two cents on Lasith Malinga's extraordinary feat in the Cricket World Cup last Wednesday. Having spent my tween and early teens in England and India I used to play and watch quite a bit of cricket. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to catch One Day Internationals between India and Pakistan in the Sharjah Cup, or the never ending Test series which always end in a draw.

The last live cricket game I watched was probably around 1996 so it's been a full ten years but I had no problem whatsoever getting back into the swing of things upon watching the game between Sri Lanka and South Africa. First off I have to congratulate Lasith Malinga for getting four wickets in four successive balls, an achievement so unprecedented at the highest level that an official term has not yet been coined for it. Some are clamoring for it to be dubbed a "Malinga" (hmmmm) but the ICC will most likely settle for "double hat-trick". Which makes you wonder what they'll call six in six? I digress. Malinga's unorthodox bowling technique has earned him the nickname "Slinger" and in fact having not watched cricket in so long (that’s right there was a reason for my initial reminiscing) I could have sworn that a bowler was supposed to release the ball not only when the height of his arm is lower than or equal to his shoulder, but also with his wrist parallel to the ground. Lasith's release is more vertical and therefore gives an appearance of a throw.

See the below video clip of Malinga in action against South Africa:

Compare that to this hat-trick by Chaminda Vaas against Bangladesh:

And then Jerome Taylor's against Australia:

By no means am I trying to rain on his parade but I just wanted to satisfy my own curiousity. Had the rules changed in the last ten years? Or had I incorrectly assumed that the way I was taught to bowl in a proper English school was the legal way.
The official rule states (ICC Law 24 #3):

Definition of fair delivery - the arm
A ball is fairly delivered in respect of the arm if, once the bowler's arm has reached the level of the shoulder in the delivery swing, the elbow joint is not straightened partially or completely from that point until the ball has left the hand. This definition shall not debar a bowler from flexing or rotating the wrist in the delivery swing.

Ahhh so the rule explicitly allows the bowler to flex his wrist as desired provided the elbow movement is compliant. Okay, so I was wrong. Congrats again to Lasith and if anyone else has any doubts direct them to this blog entry.