The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday (March 8) suspended Zimbabwe's medium-pacer Brian Vitori to bowl in international cricket with immediate effect. The decision was taken after the event panel of ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 confirmed that left-armer uses an illegal bowling action.

Vitori was reported by the match officials after Zimbabwe's non-broadcast clash against Nepal on Sunday (March 4) at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo.

“As per Article 3.6.2 of the ICC Illegal Bowling Regulations, Vitori’s bowling action was filmed in the next match he played after being reported, which was against Afghanistan on Tuesday, and the video footage of his bowling spells were provided to the Event Panel of Helen Bayne and Mark King, who are both members of the ICC Panel of Human Movement Specialists, for analysis and assessment,” the ICC press release stated.

“Following its review, the Event Panel concluded that Vitori employs an illegal bowling action, and, as such, in accordance with Article 6.5 of the regulations, he has been immediately suspended from bowling in international cricket,” the statement further read.

The 28-year-old Vitori won’t be able to bowl in international cricket until he submits an assessment of his bowling action at an ICC approved Testing Center and the subsequent analysis establishes that his bowling action is legal.

In the meantime, the technical committee of ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 has granted the Zimbabwe cricket team to replace Vitori with Richard Ngarava.

The 20-year-old Ngarava is a like for like replacement as he happens to be a left-arm pacer and a lower-order batsman. Having made his international debut last year, Ngarava has played 6 ODIs for Zimbabwe thus far.