- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I have watched the Charlie Dean Mankad dismissal several dozen times and believe both the Indian and English teams have correct and incorrect arguments regarding the ruling.
Let’s start with how both parties are right.
The Indians are right that Deepti Sharma’s act of running out Dean at the bowler’s end was completely within the rules. MCC Law 41.16 states a non-striker, such as Dean, can be run out if they are out of their ground at the instant the bowler “would normally have been expected to release the ball”.
It’s touch and go, but if Sharma had not slowed and then aborted her delivery action, I believe Dean’s bat would have left the protection beyond the bowling crease an instant before Sharma would have sent down her delivery. The fact third umpire’s call requires such an estimation is a subject to which I will return to.
But the English are also right to be aggrieved. As I’ve said, it’s a close call whether Dean would have been out of her ground when Sharma released the ball, had she proceeded to do so. It was fractions of second and mere inches of territory. Dean only proceeded further down the pitch because she hadn’t realised that the ball remained in Sharma’s right hand and that she was heading back to the stumps to run her out.
My problem with Mankading of that kind is that it involves an element of entrapment. There’s something sneaky about it.
Mankading of this nature is not the same as stumping a batsman who has come down the wicket and missed the ball and it’s different from running a batsman out as they charge towards the wicket which is broken. In both those cases, the batsman’s dismissal involves a legitimate contest between the skills of the batsman and the skills of the fielding side.
Instead, the kind of Mankading which saw Dean run out occurs, both literally and figuratively, behind the non-striker’s back. The non-striker, expecting the bowler to release the ball – as they have done every other ball – is fooled into putting themselves at risk of dismissal. Unless they have set off as the bowler gathers into their action, the non-striker is guilty of little more than a lack of imagination.
That said, both teams are also wrong.
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
In my view, the Indians were right about the rules but were wrong to entrap the batsman into breaking them rather than wait for a more egregious episode of Dean leaving her ground early.
However, there is video evidence of Dean in the climatic overs leading up to her dismissal, leaving her ground well before the ball is released. This is presumably in an attempt to achieve a critical single whilst securing the strike with the last batter in. Strikingly, that video evidence also reveals a watchful Deepti Sharma, at mid-off, observing the advantage Dean was seeking to secure.
Looking at the circumstances as a whole, rather than adopting a myopic focus on the event which saw Dean dismissed, I can see the Indian point of view. If Dean was consistently leaving her ground before the ball was bowled then it’s hard to complain when she’s run out, my preference for a more egregious episode notwithstanding.
I promised to return to the judgment call a third umpire must make under the current laws.
CLICK HERE for a seven-day free trial to watch international cricket on KAYO
Law 41.16 requires the batsman, at first instance, and the third umpire, in the event of an appeal, to judge the instant when the bowler would have released the ball had they done so. In other words, the critical moment is based on something which didn’t happen.
In my view, a better measure would be the moment the bowler’s front foot lands on the ground. That may be an instant before the bowler releases the ball, but it’s a split second at best and it at least involves an objective standard based on an event that actually occurred, even if the delivery action is not completed.
And if we’re going to amend the laws, let’s also enshrine the convention of giving the non-striker a warning, preferably by the bowler, to the batter, via the umpire.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.