"Mankading" : Every Fact You Need to Know About the Controversial Style of Run-out And Why it Shouldn't be Considered Against the Spirit of The Game .

The topic of "Mankading" got the spotlight in the cricketing world again during the final ODI between INDW and ENGW yesterday . Charlie Dean became the latest victim to this old-yet-controversial method of run-out when Deepti Sharma used it to dismiss her and get her team the victory .

 The incident left the cricketing world with mixed feelings , some were seen criticising Deepti's actions , while some others defended and justified her actions by stating it to be perfectly legal .

So , what exactly is "Mankading" ? For those who are new to cricket , it's  a style of run out in which the bowler dismisses the non-striker batter if he/she is outside the crease before the delivery has been bowled , however the bowler should have completed his/her bowling action before doing so . It was first done in 1835 , when a bowler Thomas Barker dismissed George Baigent of Sussex.

The famous Indian cricketer Vinoo Mankad used this method to dismiss Bill Brown twice during India tour of Australia in 1947 , and due to the incident becoming popular , this method got named after him . There have been numerous other incidents of Mankading since then .

After reading this , most of us wonder why this method was deemed unfair ? At the time when Vinoo Mankad did it , he faced heavy backlash from the Australian cricket experts and media , only the legendary Sir Don Bradman wasn't critical of Vinoo.

The law 41 of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) considered Mankading as an unfair practice . While it was not completely illegal, it wasn't encouraged either . The argument given for it was that the bowler should warn the non-striker batter before attempting this run-out , but it wasn't considered compulsory by MCC . After a recent amendment , it was moved to law 38 which involves rules about run-outs .

In this blog's author's view , Mankading isn't unfair at all . If the bowler steps out of the crease , his/her delivery is considered a "no-ball" and a free hit is awarded to the batting side . But there is no rule for a batter who is stepping out of the crease and getting an unfair advantage of having to cover less distance between the 22 yards , even if it is minimal . If a bowler can get penalised on stepping out , so can the batter . Deepti Sharma didn't do anything wrong , and so have the other bowlers who attempted it . The MCC have changed their mindset about this run-out style , and so should we . It has nothing to do with the spirit of the game .

Thanks for reading this post ! These views are the author's personal views , and the author does not intend to offend anyone , any mistake is deeply regretted .

Information used in this post was taken from Wikipedia .