A special report from Wade Gleeson
DURING the Southern Cricket Association match between Gretna II and Bothwell I at Bothwell last Saturday, a Gretna batsman was run out at the bowlers end (“Mankaded”) by a Bothwell paceman. After some deliberation, the batsman was given out.
At the time it was somewhat uncomfortable situation for both players and umpire. This form of dismissal in the past has been deemed extremely poor sportsmanship, with cricketers believing such an act should be preceded by a warning and some say this should still occur.
Last October, this form of dismissal, that has always been a grey area of the game, became clearer and easier for bowlers to pull off after Cricket Australia incorporated the Marylebone Cricket Club's new guidelines on the ploy into its domestic playing conditions.
Among several changes to the MCC's Laws of Cricket was a subtle alteration to the rules on Mankading - the act of a bowler running-out the non-striking batsman before bowling the ball – which have been in place for international cricket since 2011.
Under the previous MCC Laws, bowlers were permitted to attempt to run out the non-striker only before entering their delivery stride. Now, bowlers at all levels of cricket are able to run-out the non-striker up to the instant at which they "would be expected to deliver the ball".
I guess it’s pretty simple when one sums it up. If a batsman is looking to gain an advantage by leaving the crease early, then they must accept the umpires decision if given run out. And if the batsman is caught out of their crease through simply by not paying attention, then I guess it is just bad luck.
Either way, if you are out of your crease, be aware as it’s well with in the rules for you to be given out no questions asked. You maybe lucky and given a warning, but I wouldn’t be counting on it so much any more. The moral to the story is - stay in your crease until the bowler has bowled the ball.
Information from Wikipedia tells us that he term/dismissal originated during India's tour of Australia on 13 December 1947 in the second Test at Sydney. India's Vinoo Mankad ran out Australia’s Bill Brown when Brown had backed up too far at the bowler’s end. In the act of delivering the ball, Mankad held on to it and removed the bails with Brown well out of his crease. This was the second time Mankad had dismissed Brown in this fashion on the tour, having already done it in an earlier match against an Australian XI. On that occasion he had warned Brown once before running him out. Some in the Press accused Mankad of being unsportsmanlike, although some Australians, including Don Bradman, the Australian captain at the time, defended Mankad's actions. Since this incident, a batsman dismissed in this fashion is (informally) said to have been "Mankaded".
Cricket throws up many situations all the time and that’s what makes it so interesting to play. Mankading doesn’t happen very often and that’s why one can feel a little hard done by when given out, but rules are rules that must be followed for the good of the game.
One could say that this rule has been misinterpreted from the time it first occurred. If the batsman is given a warning, he/she should feel very lucky as with any other cricket rule there is no second chance and it is actually the batsman who is looking to gain advantage leaving the crease early, therefore risking of getting out and at no fault other than his/her own.
