Moeen Ali reckons only extreme anger would persuade him to use the ‘Mankad’ as a way to take a wicket.
It would be highly unlikely that the usually zen all rounder would actually get to a level of anger that would see him try to run out a batter at the non-striker’s end for backing up too far. And England’s current stand-in skipper in Pakistan would actually go further the other way and ban it altogether following the outcry at each episode.
The latest incident was, of course, Deepti Sharma’s run out of Charlie Dean in the final women’s ODI between India and England last Saturday, once again sparking the debate around the dismissal named after former Indian cricket Vinoo Mankad.
“No it's not my thing,” said Moeen. “I don't think I'll ever do it unless I was really angry with someone.
“It's the laws and there's nothing illegal so people that do it have the right, but I just hope it doesn't become a common thing, or something that's regularly done. You’re not really working to get a wicket. At least with a run-out, there’s a bit of work that has to be done, and with all the other dismissals.
“This is just waiting for the guy and taking the bails off. Even when I played cricket as a kid in the garden, it’s not my thing to do. I actually just think they should get rid of them. We were discussing this the other day, how would you do it.”
Moeen’s comments reveal the emotional element to this form of dismissal which many see as an underhand tactic by the bowler. However, the dismissal stems from batters not remaining in their crease until the ball is bowled and, in close matches, the desire to steal an unfair advantage by running before time is obvious, so how else would you stop it?
Moeen actually comes up with an answer, which is remarkably similar to the current law, so it is all rather confusing as to how it would be policed better than it is now.
“Obviously you have to be aware of it and it’s part of the game now,” he said. “If people are going to do it regularly then you’ll have to stay in your crease. You should be in your crease anyway, to be fair, but it’s a difficult one.
“But there should be a line where you can’t go past and you know how the umpires look for the no-balls, they could potentially do the same for that. And say, right, he’s got one more, if he does it again, he’s gone.”
The idea of a warning has lots of supporters, but it begs the question. Should every batsman be warned before a bowler tries to get them out?
