As with the other accredited centers, the ICC has now provided a full set of testing equipment and software to the LUMS testing center. © Getty

The facility at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has been granted accreditation by the ICC as an official testing center for suspected illegal bowling actions, cricket's governing body announced on Thursday (July 25).

LUMS becomes only the fifth such testing center in the world, joining the list of National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, Loughborough University, Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai and the University of Pretoria.

"I want to congratulate the Pakistan Cricket Board, who worked in conjunction with LUMS to fulfill all criteria required for an ICC accredited testing centre," ICC General Manager, Cricket, Geoff Allardice said. "This reflects the PCB's effort and commitment to deal with suspect illegal bowling actions."

The criteria referenced by Allardice included having an indoor area large enough to allow a player to bowl off his or her full run-up, a motion analysis system with a minimum of 12 high-speed cameras capable of producing three-dimensional data, and suitably qualified personnel experienced in using such systems and capable of implementing the ICC testing protocol.

PCB Managing Director Wasim Khan recognized it as a 'significant development' that would, among other things, help identify and rectify faulty bowling actions at an early stage in domestic cricket.

As with the other accredited centers, the ICC has now provided a full set of testing equipment and software to the LUMS testing center, to allow for a consistent assessment of bowlers across the different facilities worldwide.