The controversy known as ‘Mankading’ has raised its head in First Class cricket once again.
The name ‘Mankad’ originates from Vinoo Mankad, the Indian left arm bowler/opening batsman.
In the 1947/48 Australian tour of India, Vinoo Mankad ran out the non-striking batshman Bill Brown, by breaking the wicket at the non-striker’s end during his run-up, while Bill Brown was out of his ground.
Although seen as ‘unsporting’, Vinoo’s tactic was perfectly within the Rules of Cricket, at that time.
Vinoo Mankad had some form on this tactic.
He had previously dismissed the obviously hard of learning Bill Brown, in another match, against an Australian XI earlier in the tour.
The latest ‘Mankad’ controversy has arisen in an Under 19 Cricket World Cup match, between West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Keemo Paul was bowling for the WI, while at the non-striker’s end was Zimbabwe’s Richard Ngarava.
On his run up, Keemo Paul saw that Richard Ngarava was out of his ground, so he broke the non-striker’s wicket and appealed for a dismissal.
Here’s a frame capture of the incident:
Before we look at the rules of cricket, we need to understand that there are more than one set of rules to the sport.
The underpinning set of rules are the MCC Laws of Cricket and it is this set of rules that I’ll concentrate on first of all.
The Laws of Cricket apply worldwide*, and were first codified over 250 years ago.
The MCC Laws of Cricket are updated annually; the updates are published in an official publication.
In the 2016 edition (I have my copy close at hand) Law 42 (Fair and Unfair Play) refers, in general, to the practice known as ‘Mankading’.
In particular Law 42.15 says:
The bowler is permitted, before entering his delivery stride, to attempt to run out the non-striker.
I’ll skip the rest of Law 42.15, because we already have the crucial wording:
‘The bowler is permitted, before entering his delivery stride, to attempt to run out the non-striker’.
So the question is, had Keemo Paul legally attempted to dismiss Richard Ngarava?
As the still shot plainly shows, Paul was well in to his run-up, but he clearly had not entered his delivery stride.
So it was a legal attempt at dismissal, as defined in the MCCs Laws of Cricket.
Was Richard Ngarava right to have been judged out?
That’s a tough call.
I believe that at the moment that Keemo Paul broke the non-striking batsman’s wickets, Richard Ngarava’s bat was actually on the line of the popping crease.
Which, in my view, should have led to a ‘not out’ decision.
But cricket, like all sports, is a lot easier from the comfort of one’s own front room.
*except where local and/or tournament or competition regulations apply, where such regulations may introduce variations to the MCC Laws of Cricket
I’m not a cricket fan, so I’m afraid this was all Greek to me.
Do the Greeks play cricket?
Of course, as a future umpire, I’ll agree with whatever you say.
My dear Masher, of course the Greeks play cricket (as this snipped from Wikipedia testifies):
The Greece national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Greece in international cricket matches. The side is organised by the Hellenic Cricket Federation, which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council in 1995. Greece is often referred to as Hellas in cricket contexts.
I just hope the teams I’m umpiring will be as accommodating as you!