Sussex stood by vice-captain James Kirtley today after his England debut was marred by more controversy over his bowling action.

Kirtley took 2-33 on his international debut in yesterday's victory over Zimbabwe in Harare, but later learned that match referee Colonel Naushad Ali had cast doubts over his action.

Ali was due to review TV footage of the game with umpires Ian Robinson and Russell Tiffin and members of the England management later today before deciding whether to report Kirtley to the ICC.

Ali said: "From what I've seen there could be a problem with Kirtley's bowling action. I understand he has had problems in the past and, as it was his first international, he hasn't been cleared by the ICC."

Kirtley must have thought any doubts about the legality of his action, which is caused by a hyper-extension in his elbow, had ended when he was cleared by an ECB panel after exhaustive analysis last November.

Kirtley said: "I've been through a lot of analysis and as far as I'm concerned the slate has been wiped clean. Yesterday was a happy day and I won't be losing any sleep over this."

Today Sussex coach Peter Moores called for the ECB to "act quickly" in support of Kirtley.

He said: "It must be extremely frustrating for James. He has bowled well on his international debut and some of the shine has been taken off by all this.

"I hope the ECB act quickly. A panel of seven or eight people examined every aspect of James's action less than a year ago and cleared him, but now it appears he might have to be tried for the same thing twice which is wrong, it would never happen in any other walk of life.

"Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar went through a similar thing when they started, because when a new bowler comes onto the international scene it's the first thing people look at. As a club there isn't a great deal we can do except stand by James and hope that it's sorted out quickly."

Sussex's out-of-contract trio Dominic Clapp, Will House and Jamie Carpenter have been offered new deals by the county. All three are to be awarded one-year contracts after lengthy deliberation by the club's management.