"It's dangerous because it could lead to this now being looked at as a genuine tactic to get rid of a premier player"
Tuesday 26 March 2019 17:24, UK
David Lloyd has his say on Jos Buttler's controversial 'Mankad' dismissal by Ravichandran Ashwin in the Rajasthan Royals' 14-run defeat to the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL on Monday...
There are two key things to remember with Buttler's 'Mankad' dismissal in the IPL.
Number 1, of paramount importance is, as batsman, don't leave your ground. Number 2, to the bowler, don't try and deceive the batsman. There is onus on both Buttler and Ashwin here.
But, I would argue Ashwin didn't go about things correctly. It's only my opinion, but I thought that Ashwin was trying to deceive the batsman.
I'm just reading through the laws of the game, because the law has recently changed. It states: 'If the non-striker is out of his ground at any time from the moment the ball comes in to play, until the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball'.
What seems particularly relevant is, 'when the bowler is normally expected to release the ball'.
It looked to me, at the precise moment of his dismissal, Ashwin had stopped in his delivery. Buttler would therefore have continued, expecting Ashwin to release the ball and not knowing that he would stop.
This is one that is quite useful to know within the law. 'The fielding side have the option not to appeal, or to withdraw the appeal, if they do not want to dismiss the batsman in this way'. The way to interpret that is "we're giving you a warning". "Don't do it again."
As for the 'spirit of the game'? Forget it. There is none.
It's pie in the sky thinking. The spirit of the game went years ago; It's dog eat dog.
The present-day players seem to want the onus to be thrown straight back on to the umpire. Ashwin wants Buttler out, and so it is the third umpire who ends up making the decision. The argument could be that he got it wrong - under the interpretation of the laws of the game.
Because of the furore surrounding this, I'd like the law to be written a little clearer, so that everyone understands.
That said, Michael Atherton has a very good point on the issue: Why was Buttler not looking at the bowler's hand?
If you stay in your ground and watch the bowler's hand and then move only when the ball is released, there's absolutely no problem.
But the wider issue is, is a batsman leaving his crease to gain an unfair advantage? I'm not sure Buttler was doing that last night.
Of course the defence of the bowler would be to show a number of other instances where Buttler was out of his ground. But it just looked to me that he wasn't charging down the pitch, he wasn't stealing a march. He was just guilty of being a bit dozy.
Buttler has previous for it [against Sri Lanka in 2014]. And teams have noticed that.
If you're asking me with a coach's hat on, I'd have been absolutely livid. I know exactly how I'd have reacted; "When they bat, they are fair game. Nail their best player."
That is how I'd react. But that is a dangerous way to go.
It's dangerous because it could lead to this now being looked at as a genuine tactic to get rid of a premier player. And it's just another law the umpires are left to implement.
You'll often get little messages that come on to the field from the 12th man. I wonder what that message was?
"Watch the non-striking batsman, he's out of his ground, run him out." Run up, stop in the run up, wait till the batsman is out of his ground and take the bails off. Howzat?
Ask yourself this. If it's the World Cup final, and somebody does that to Virat Kohli, are you ok with it?
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