Ricky Ponting and R Ashwin still not on same page regarding Mankading
The long-awaited conversation is over. And the result? Ricky Ponting is more concerned about the non-striker stealing a few extra yards calling it "cheating" and still feels that Mankading is not the right option and that there should be a way around it to keep the non-striker inside the crease until the ball is released. Ponting has called for "run penalty" to be given to the batting team in such scenarios.
Earlier last month, Delhi Capitals head coach, Ponting said that he would have a "hard conversation" with Ashwin and that "this is not going to be the way we play our cricket". And thus, the topic of Mankading became one of the biggest topics of conversation for Delhi Capitals in the build-up to IPL 2020 in the UAE.
On his YouTube diary show on Wednesday, Ashwin spoke to his coach regarding the type of dismissal and only agreed that batsman taking an undue advantage at the non-striker's end is cheating, but Ponting did not admit that Mankading is a right form of dismissal.
"Yeah, I totally get where you are coming from," Ponting told Ashwin when asked for his views on the run-out. "I wasn't trying to say that you were [not] justified because it is actually in the laws of the game. You can do it. So if a batsman is cheating, and trying to steal a couple of yards…
"I just think that we have got to find a way around. Trying to stop the batsman cheating. We have had this conversation already. I don't want to see anyone running two or three yards down the wicket. Because that basically is cheating."
Ashwin, at the start of the conversation, recalled that the first time he had Mankaded a batsman was when he was 12. "Because I couldn't stand the batsmen taking those extra yards," he explained. "I was a batsman myself in the junior category, and I feel it is a massive advantage. And the moment I did that, spirit of cricket was brought into play."
Ashwin then asked him if batsmen should be reprimanded like bowlers are for no-balls with ICC introducing the third-umpire to take care of bowlers overstepping the crease.
"I think so. I feel there should be some sort of run penalty. If you stop at the top of your bowling action and stop and it shows that the batsman is out of his crease and it shows then put a run penalty on him. And do it right from the start," Ponting added.
Ashwin's dismissal of Jos Buttler via Mankading in IPL 2019 left the cricket fraternity divided with some defending the bowler citing the MCC rules while others criticised it saying that it was against the 'spirit of the game'.
