Cricket: Aussie legend Ricky Ponting proposes 10-run penalty for non-strikers caught leaving the crease early
How about a 10-run penalty for batsmen creeping out of their crease early? Aussie legend Ricky Ponting says that would be fair for the “cheaters”.
Cricket
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Aussie legend Ricky Ponting has advocated a 1o-run penalty for batsmen at the non-strikers end who creep up the wicket before the ball is bowled, digging in on his stance that running them out isn’t in the spirit of the game.
Ponting has linked up with Indian spinner Ravi Ashwin, the biggest proponent of the “Mankad” at Indian Premier League outfit the Delhi Capitals.
Before arriving in India, Ponting said he would have a “hard conversation” with Ashwin about his strong stance, with the spinner having run-out England’s Jos Buttler last season as he crept up the pitch.
Ashwin said he had been a “serial offender” running out bastmen ever since he started playing cricket.
Ponting believes it’s cheating by the batsman, but told Ashwin, in an online chat, that a run penalty was the ideal way to keep him in his crease.
“Yeah, I totally get where you are coming from,” Ponting told Ashwin when asked for his views on the run-out.
“I wasn’t trying to say that you were (not) justified because it is actually in the laws of the game. You can do it. So if a batsman is cheating, and trying to steal a couple of yards ... I just think that we have got to find a way around. Trying to stop the batsman cheating.
“I think there should be some sort of a run penalty.
“If you are to get to the top of your bowling action and stop, and it shows that the batsman is cheating and is out of his crease, I think put a run penalty on them. And do it right from the start, because that will stop him right away.
“Imagine taking 10 runs off a team total because you have taken yards... those sort of things need to be looked at.”
Ponting is also part of the MCC’s world cricket committee which meets regularly to put proposals about rule changes to cricket’s governing body.
Ashwin‘s run-out of Buttler in the 2019 IPL sharply divided opinion in the cricketing world, and Ponting has let him know he doesn’t want a re-occurence when the competition starts later this month.
Originally published as Cricket: Aussie legend Ricky Ponting proposes 10-run penalty for non-strikers caught leaving the crease early