Published: Mar 26, 2019, 09:12 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 26, 2019, 09:12 AM (IST)
R Ashwin‘s controversial ‘Mankad’ dismissal of Jos Buttler in their Indian T20 League match on Monday has divided opinions while promising to add a potentially divisive tone to further matches between Punjab and Rajasthan.
Ashwin, the Punjab captain, became only the second player in the league’s history to run out a player who was backing up.
Here are some noteworthy instances when the ‘Mankad’ dismissal – a term that though part of the rules of cricket has evoked several controversies – made headlines and caused bad blood. (READ: How did the term Mankading originate?)
On December 9, 1992, the ‘Friendship Series’ between India and South Africa took an unfriendly turn when Kapil Dev ‘Mankaded’ South African batsman Peter Kirsten.
As Kapil ran into bowl, he spotted that Kirsten – not for the first time in the series – had backed up too far. So without warning, he knocked off the bails at the non-striker’s end and turned to the umpire and appealed for the dismissal. Kapil then shooed off Kirsten while showing three fingers to South African captain Kepler Wessels in reminder that it was the third time that Kirsten had repeated the act.
Umpire Cyrus Mitchley had no choice but to give it out. He was later to say, “As much as I respect Kapil, I didn’t agree with what he did then.”
In 2014, Buttler was dismissed in similar manner during an ODI against Sri Lanka when the offspinner Sachithra Senanayake, who had previously warned him, dislodged the bails when the batsman wandered out of his crease.
Buttler was enraged and the Edgbaston crowd booed Sri Lanka, but two years later the England batsman accepted fault for that dismissal.
“It is obviously batsman error,” said Buttler in 2016. “If you walk out of your ground and someone wants to do it, it is in the Laws of the game. It is all part of the game.”
Keemo Paul, 2016 U-19 World Cup
During the 2016 Under-19 World Cup, the teenaged West Indies fast bowler Keemo Paul ‘Mankaded’ a Zimbabwean opponent to help his team claim a crucial win that helped them into the knockouts. Victory by two runs put West Indies U-19s into the quarter-finals and eliminated Zimbabwe U-19s, but the reactions around the cricket world were polarised.
Shimron Hetmyer, the West Indies U-19 captain, backed Paul for his actions.
“I would say yes, cricket is a game of uncertainties. We’ve seen it happen in cricket before. It’s not a big deal for us,” Hetmyer said. “It’s probably not in the spirit of the game, but we’re happy to have won.”
During a Test match in 1979 at the WACA in Perth, Pakistan batsman Asif Iqbal was playing the innings of his career to try and drag his team to a total from where they could push Australia. Shielding the tail, Asif was batting with the No 11 Sikander Bakht who had not scored a run in a stand of 22. Trying to help Asif get the strike again, Bakht left his crease and Alan Hurst removed the bails without a warning.
Pakistan’s innings ended on 285, with Asif 134 not out.
