Ever since then Punjab player Ravichandran Ashwin ran out Rajasthan's Jos Buttler at the non-striker's end - also known as 'mankading' after Vinoo Mankad pioneered the practice in 1947 - during the 2019 Indian T20 League season, the issue has been a hot topic. Now, ahead of the 2020 edition of the tournament, Ashwin has joined Delhi, whose coach Ricky Ponting has had a word with him about the matter.
Ponting had said back in August that he would be taking a hard stance against mankading. However, Ashwin went on to say on his YouTube channel that during a recent discussion with Ponting, the former Aussie captain was in agreement about Ashwin's 'run penalty' suggestion if the non-striker is cheating, where, should a batsman be found out of the crease, runs will be docked.
"I think there should be some sort of run penalty," said Ponting after being asked about Ashwin's proposed solution. "If you are to get to the top of your bowling action and stop, and it shows that the batsman is cheating, he's out of his crease, I think you can put a run penalty on him and do it right from the start.
"Because that'll stop him straight away. Imagine taking 10 runs out of a team total because you've taken a yard out of your crease. It's got to be...I think those sort of things need to be looked at."
We also learnt that later in the 2019 season, Ponting, along with Delhi captain Shreyas Iyer, had approached Ashwin to avoid a similar incident in their match against Punjab, in return of an assurance that the Delhi batsmen would not back up too far.
Ponting clarified his stance by saying that while he empathised with Ashwin's position, there has to be a way to dissuade batsmen from 'pinching a couple of yards' instead of encouraging mankading, "Honestly, we've got to find a way around, trying to make the batsman stop cheating. We've had this conversation already. I don't want to see anyone running two or three yards down the wicket. That basically is cheating."
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Indranil Mukherjee
