Mankad batsman breaks silence on 'wishy-washy' law
England cricket star Jos Buttler has declared he does not believe he was out with Ravi Ashwin’s controversial Mankad last week.
But he says the problem sits not with Ashwin but with the mode of dismissal lies with the rules.
Buttler was dominating for the Rajasthan Royals when Ashwin, the Kings XI Punjab captain, stopped in his delivery stride to run out the batsman.
The dismissal stopped the Royals in their tracks as Kings XI went on to win the match.
Much of the debate surrounded Ashwin’s apparent predetermined decision to deceive by cutting his action short and waiting for Buttler to exit the crease.
The law states that the bowler can only Mankad a batsman “until the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball”.
“If you look at the footage, probably the wrong decision was made because at the time he was expected to release the ball I was in my crease,” Buttler told ESPNCricinfo.
“At the time I was really disappointed with it. I didn’t like the style of it. I just thought it was a bad precedent at the start of the tournament. For the tournament itself. It was a really disappointing way to start the tournament.”
Amid the fallout, the MCC released a statement declaring the decision could have gone either way but backtracked to suggest Ashwin’s deception went against ‘Spirit of Cricket’.
“Of course a Mankading has to be in the laws of the game because a batsman can’t just run halfway down the pitch trying to get a headstart,” Buttler said.
“But I do think, the way the law is written, there is a bit of a grey area in that saying ‘when a bowler is expected to release the ball’. That is a bit of a wishy-washy statement.”
It was the second time Buttler had been the victim of a Mankad in professional cricket, having been run out by Sri Lanka in 2014.
He said he found himself “being really counscious” of the dismissal in the IPL matches after Ashwin’s run out.
After scores of just five and six since scoring 69 runs against Kings XI before the Mankad, Buttler returned to form with 59 in a successful chase against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
