Mankading : Against the SPIRIT OF THE GAME or a Sheer PRESENCE OF MIND

The MCC rule:

The MCC (Law 42.15) states that "The bowler is permitted, before entering his delivery stride, to attempt to run out the non-striker. Whether the attempt is successful or not, the ball shall not count as one of the over. If the bowler fails in an attempt to run out the non-striker, the umpire shall call and signal Dead ball as soon as possible.

The ICC rule:

The bowler is permitted, before releasing the ball and provided he has not completed his usual delivery swing, to attempt to run out the non-striker. Whether the attempt is successful or not, the ball shall not count as one of the over. if the bowler fails in an attempt to run out the non-striker, the umpire shall call and signal dead ball as soon possible.

This would probably be the most controversial segment of cricket laws that could have ever existed. Mankading is a practice that runs back to 1947 when it was first used in the second test match at Sydney. At this instance Indian bowler Vindoo Mankad(the form of run out is named after him since he was the first one to do it) ran out non striker Bill Brown even before delivering the bowl. However it was termed as against the spirit of the game by the Australian Media as well but he was very well supported by the then Australian Captain and legendary batsman Sir Donald Bradman.

There have been ten such instances of mankading in the history of cricket and the latest one is as recent as yesterday(19th February 2016).

The first instance has been described above.

The second such instance was in 1969 when Australian batsman Ian Redpath was mankaded by West Indian bowler Charlie Griffith in the fourth test match at Adelaide. The match ended in a tame draw but not before Australia had fallen to 339/9 while chasing 370.

The third instance was in the high voltage clash between traditional rivals England and Australia. Debutant Brian Luckhurst was run out by Greg Chapell on new years eve in 1975. Despite this the englishmen won the match by 3 wickets

The fourth instance was at Christchurch in the second test when Kiwi batsman Derek Randall's run out caused a furore to as he was Mankaded by Englishman Ewen Chatfield. 

The fifth instance occurred during the the 2nd Test between Australia and Pakistan at the WACA when Alan Hurst had run out tailender Sikander Bakht. Australia went on to win the game by seven wickets.

The sixth instance was in the 1992-1993 series between Zimbabwe and New Zealand. Zimbabwean opener Grant Flower was mankaded by Kiwi bowler Dipak Patel but this did not happen before he scored a fluent fifty. However the kiwis won the match by 4 wickets.

The seventh instance was when the South African Cricket team had returned to International Cricket after 23 years of exile. They were playing the Indians at the Port Elizabeth in the 2nd ODI. Legendary Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev had warned SA batsman Peter Kirsten in the first ODI and again he observed Peter standing a few steps outside the crease and rest as we know is history. It created a lot of animosity between the two sides but later, Peter did admit that he was warned by Kapil in the previous match as well.

The eight incident occurred in a Sri Lanka vs England clash at Birmingham in the final ODI in 2014 which turned out to be the series decider as well. England wicket-keeper Jos Buttler was Mankaded by Sachithra Senanayake and the Sri Lankan team was booed off the field by the english crowd as well.

The ninth such instance occurred in the U19 World Cup 2016 held in bangladesh. It was a decider match between West Indies(the eventual winners of the tournament) and Zimbabwe. The match was a decider for the final spot of the quater finals of the tournament. Keemo Paul effected a mankad to claim the last Zimbabwe Under-19 wicket - that of Richard Nagarava with three runs needed of the final over of the game. 

The tenth and the latest instance took place in the Asia Cup 2016 qualifiers between Oman and Hong Kong. Oman off spinner Aamir Kaleem mankaded Hong Kong batsman Mark Champan. The match turned out to be a close encounter as Hong Kong lost the match by just 5 runs and it might be possible that the mankad dismissal played a part in the loss. 

These were the various instances in International Cricket when the batsman was dismissed in this fashion. 

It has been termed by many persons as one of the most cowardly and unethical ways to get a wicket and something that is against the spirit of the game. However I feel otherwise. I think that to effect such a dismissal one has to be present minded and have quick stimuli to respond to such a situation. Also to those who feel it is against the "Spirit of the Game" I would like to ask them what according to them should be the spirit of the game be defined as. According to me two teams play a game of cricket with the intention to win the game. And something that would go against the spirit would be on field fights(non verbal ones), sledging(that gets too personal), match fixing, corruption etc. Just like one needs to be present in the game at all times to take stunning catches and effect superhuman runouts (like the one Jhonty Rhodes had effected) one has to have an alert brain to effect a mankad run out. At the end of the day the batting team plays to score as many runs as possible for them and the fielding team plays to take as many wickets as possible and dismiss the opposition for as low a total as possible. Therefore the Mankading dismissal is just another way of getting a wicket out of nowhere. Having said that I also believe that the batsman should be given a chance in the form of a warning before being dismissed by such means.

A wicket could change the entire course of the game on its head and could bear devastating results(like it did for Zimbabwe) but its all a part and parcel of the game I feel.