Ravi Ashwin may just have overtaken Virat Kohli a most cricket fans’ most hated player, after a farcical performance.
Jos Buttler was run out – or ‘Mankaded’ – at the non-strikers end by Ashwin, overshadowing Steve Smith’s return to the IPL.
The Mankad is a controversial way to run someone out, often regarded as unsporting unless the bowler has warned the basman before.
Shane Warne led the social media bashing of Ashwin, calling him “embarrassing” and “disgraceful” across a series of half a dozen tweets this morning.
England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan called it a “Terrible example to set for young kids”, while Michael Vaughn denounced it as “completely out of order”.
On the other side of the fence, Harsha Bhogle defended the dismissal as well within the laws of the game. Later, he seemed to soften his position by saying that the third umpire gave it out, so that constituted it as being within the rules.
The ‘spirit of the game’ argument will be had time and again, but it seems like, even under the rules, Buttler has been hard done by.
Law 41.16 states: “If the non-striker is out of his/her ground from the moment the ball comes into play to the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the bowler is permitted to attempt to run him/her out.”
The purpose of the rule is obviously to prevent batters from trying to ‘steal’ a run, as in baseball, or to gain an unfair advantage.
The photo of the incident clearly shows Ashwin within his delivery stride and fully ready to deliver the ball. Buttler has taken his eyes off Ashwin and is looking down the wicket ready to react. He isn’t backing up egregiously, and he certainly isn’t trying to gain an unfair advantage.
The best rebuttal to this came from Dean Jones, who pointed out that Ashwin never entered his delivery stride because he “he didn’t even get his left arm up to bowl it.”
Ashwin’s left arm didn’t go up, which makes the question of whether or not who would “normally have been expected to release the ball” twice as muddy.
Pundits will say what they want, but whoever runs the Barmy Army Twitter account probably put it best: “After careful consideration of the footage and in-depth reading of the official laws of the game, we have reached the conclusion that Ravi Ashwin is a distinctly average bloke.”
Oscar Samios
Roar Rookie
Kersi, I'm inclined to agree but I think the key difference here is that Ashwin didn't warn Buttler. If Buttler's backing up was seriously egregious then I don't think I would have as much of a problem with it, but I am pretty disappointed that he acted the way he did given that I don't think there was any ill will on the part of Buttler. I think Buttler has turned and is ready to play. It begs the question of whether we should put the explicit burden on the batsmen to watch the ball like you say. Maybe we should? Nonetheless, I think the 'spirit of the game' is all about whether someone is trying to fundamentally cheat the system to gain an unfair advantage. And no matter how much I look at it, I'm just not sure that Buttler ever means to do that
Oscar Samios
Roar Rookie
I couldn't agree more! Yet again, Warne mystifies us with his mind games and leaves us wondering what he's up to
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
Batsmen sneaking metres is against the spirit of cricket. May as well let swimmers jump off the blocks before the starter gun goes off.
Paul
Roar Guru
Excellent comment Kersi. Many people have written about how hard it is to do that, the split second required etc, but when the world's best batsman did this successfully throughout his career, why isn't this common practice? I look at another more recent "Bradman" - Sachin Tendulkar. He managed to score 100 international centuries in short & long form cricket by using the same formula. If it's good enough for arguably the two best batsmen of the past 100 years, surely their methods should be mandatory learning for all aspiring cricketers.
Paul
Roar Guru
"This win at all costs mentality has got to stop & the integrity of the game along with the spirit of the game must be of the most importance, as we need to set examples to the young boys & girls playing cricket !" Regardless the outcome of this piece of play, Shane Warne's has capped himself as THE most hypocritical player in world cricket. He practically invented the term "win at all costs cricket" with his sledging (read abuse) of not only the opposition but his own team mates ( remember "can't bowl, can't throw"?). Throw in his sometimes ridiculous appeals when he KNEW a batsman wasn't out, his use then ridiculous denial of performance enhancing drugs and this guy has no right to talk about "integrity" or the "spirit of cricket" or setting and example for children". The comment from the Barmi Army in this piece could have equally applied to Warne - great bowler but just an average bloke.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Expert
Oscar, Ashwin was NOT unsporting in doing what he did. Bradman wrote in Farewell to Cricket: “Mankad was an ideal type, and he was so scrupulously fair that he first of all warned Brown before taking any action. There was absolutely no feeling in the matter as far as we were concerned, for we considered it quite a legitimate part of the game. I always make it a practice when occupying the position of a non-striker to keep my bat behind the crease until I see the ball in the air.” Kersi Meher-Homji