A
bit of controversy was raised in the final one day international between
England and Sri Lanka on Tuesday night, when the English batsman Jos Buttler was
run out by “Mankading”.
“Mankading”
is the act of a bowler running out the non-striker for backing up too far. It is named after the Indian test cricketer
Vinoo Mankad, who performed the action twice against Bill Brown during India’s
1947 tour of Australia. In more recent
times the laws have been amended so that one can only be “mankaded” before the
bowler enters his delivery stride. I have a short piece on the subject in my forthcoming book.
True to the
spirit of one too many sporting crowds in recent years, some spectators droned
on for a while after Buttler’s dismissal, chanting “cheat” at the Sri Lankans.
I can return a short verdict on the controversy and
attendant chanting: utter nonsense.
Frequently one day matches are decided by only one or two run margins,
or with less than an over to spare. Often run-out appeals are decided only
after repeated action replays from different angles using high definition
cameras. Therefore, even one or two
inches’ distance can make all the difference.
Why, therefore, should the bowler indulge the batsman by allowing him to
start backing up before the ball has even been bowled?
The answer is that a convention has developed by which the
bowler is supposed to warn the batsman first, as indeed Mankad himself did all
those years ago. But the Sri Lankans did
warn Buttler – twice – and he chose to ignore the warning. It was therefore his fault, and his problem,
and if anyone was morally transgressing it was Buttler for trying to gain an
unfair advantage by way of short singles.
Mahela Jayawardene got it in one:
"If the other sides are not going by the rules, then
they're not playing by the spirit, so what can you do?”
Exactly.
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