ICC drops hammer on South Africa’s Prenelan Subrayen after being exposed for illegal bowling action

In a massive blow for the South Africa National Cricket Team, the 31-year-old spin-bowling all-rounder Prenelan Subrayen has been reported for a suspect action.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed the development regarding Prenelan Subrayen via a press release on Wednesday, August 20.

Prenelan Subrayen removes Travis Head on debut ODI

Subrayen made his ODI debut for South Africa in the first match of the series against the Australia National Cricket Team at Cazaly's Stadium in Cairns on Tuesday, August 19.

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He looked decent in his ODI debut game and bowled good lines and lengths. The off-spinner bagged the first wicket of his ODI career by dismissing the explosive Australia batsman Travis Head.

On the first ball of the 8th over, he outfoxed Travis Head with a good delivery, and the Aussie batter was stumped by gloveman Ryan Rickelton. He bowled all 10 overs of his quota in his debut game and gave 46 runs while picking one wicket.

However, this was not the first international game for Prenelan Subrayen, as he had played one Test match for South Africa against Zimbabwe in July 2025 and picked four wickets

South Africa off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen reported for suspect bowling

In an official media release, ICC stated that the match officials had "specified concerns about the legality" of the Proteas spinner's bowling action in the first ODI against Australia.

Prenelan Subrayen will now have to undergo an Independent Assessment of his bowling action at an ICC Accredited Testing facility and get clearance before playing international cricket.

"South Africa off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen has been reported for a suspect bowling action in the first ODI against Australia played on Aug 19, Tuesday, in Cairns," the ICC said in an official media release.

"The match officials' report specified concerns about the legality of Subrayen's action."

"The bowler will undergo an Independent Assessment of his bowling action at an ICC Accredited Testing facility," ICC said.

Also Read: ICC breaks silence on Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli's removal from ODI Batting Rankings

Keshav Maharaj destroys Australia

South Africa managed to win the ODI series opener against Australia by a big margin of 98 runs as the veteran spinner Keshav Maharaj annihilated the Aussie batting unit with his five-wicket haul.

Speaking after the game, the Proteas captain, Temba Bavuma, lauded the good all-round performance of his team and gave special mention to Keshav Maharaj for his brilliant bowling. He elaborated:

"Good all-round performance. We think we did a good job with the bat, the wicket was slow and two-paced. We tried to adapt and the bowlers came on and did their job. Not a bad toss to lose. I wasn't expecting it to turn as much. Kesh showed his class, well supported by the other bowlers too.

"(bringing spin on) The boys made me look good with that decision, with the experience against Australia, the guys at the top like the ball coming on and we had weapons in the spin, today it came good for us. I got to stay at the crease, young Matthew Breetzke as well, our conversation was the wicket was not going to get any easier, we wanted to get around the 300 mark. Even the stats say that anything over 240 makes us competitive."