page_title: Throwing (cricket)
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Throwing (cricket) / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Oil painting of Australian sportsman Tom Wills, held in the collection of the Melbourne Cricket Club.
context_page_description: In the sport of cricket, throwing, commonly referred to as chucking, is an illegal bowling action which occurs when a bowler straightens the bowling arm when delivering the ball. The Laws of Cricket specify that only the rotation of the shoulder can be used to impart velocity to the ball – a bowler's arm must not extend during the bowling action. If the umpire deems that the ball has been thrown, they will call a no-ball which means the batsman cannot be given out from that delivery. Current regulations of the International Cricket Council set the legal limit of 15 degrees of permissible straightening of the elbow joint for all bowlers in international cricket. This law applies between the point at which the bowling arm passes above shoulder height and the point at which the ball is released. The limit is to allow some natural flexing of the elbow joint which happens during the course of legal delivery.
  The charge of 'throwing' against a bowler is one of the most serious and controversial that can be made in cricket, as a bowler with an illegal action cannot dismiss a batsman.
context_section_description: Law 24, Clause 3 defines a fair delivery with respect to 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.
caption: Tom Wills, the first Australian to be called for throwing in a top-class match
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