Mankad Run-out legal but against the Spirit of the Game!!!

After Mahela Jayawardena’s criticism on the recent Ashwin-Thirimanne Mankad issue, Indian captain M.S.Dhoni has come out and defended the fielding captain saying instead of the fielding captain the umpires should take the call.

The recent Ashwin-Thirimanne Mankad run-out incident, led the cricket experts to criticize R.Ashwin for taking the bails off. Although later Virender Sehwag took his appeal back, but the occurrence of such incident has always questioned the sportsman’s spirit of the bowling team.

How can a team or player can be criticized for not playing the game with sportsman’s spirit if they have followed the rules. According to the ICC rules, if someone is taking a start then the bowler has a full right to make him run out. It’s strange to know that Mankad run-out is considered a shameful action in cricket instead of being legal.

On the other side, the batsman who leaves the non-striker’s end much before the ball is delivered is not blamed for his action. He is just giving a warning and that’s it. If trying to take wicket before the ball is bowled is wrong then making runs before the delivery is bowled is also wrong. Why only the bowling side have to come under the scanner. For such incidents even the non-striker is partly responsible for provoking the bowler by leaving his crease early.

There have been various incidents when Mankad run out were made, as it is named on Vinoo Mankad, as he was the first player to dismiss Bill Brown in this fashion. The recent Makand dismissal was done by Kapil Dev. He ran out Peter Kirsten. There have been occasions when a bowler has giving the benefit of doubt  to the non-striker batsman, the famous incident of Courtney Walsh and Saleem jaffer in the 1987 World cup. When Courtney Walsh gave another chance to Saleem Jaffar, as he found him leaving the crease early.

It’s a strange rule, where executing the rule leads to criticism and avoiding it gives appraisal. If these kind of run out is considered ugly and against the spirit of the game, then why the ICC still includes such rules in its book of law. If it’s considered legal (as it’s considered) then why the Umpires askes the fielding captain about the withdrawal of the appeal. Will the Umpire asks the fielding captain to withdraw his appeal in case when a batsman is bowled? As even this fashion of taking wicket is legal as per the ICC.

So instead of maintaining such confused and non-executive rule, the ICC should ban such mode of dismissal or else they should wait to face controversies, as whenever the incident occurs.