Ravi Ashwin’s Mankad was against the laws, never mind the spirit of cricket

Ravi Ashwin’s controversial dismissal of Jos Buttler was seen by many as against ‘the spirit of cricket’. On a closer look, argues ADAM MOBBS, it was against the laws of the game, too.

• Warne slams Ashwin over Buttler Mankad
• Craddock: Why I have no sympathy for Buttler

CAN someone please hand smug Indian cricketer Ravi Ashwin a rule book.

Because while his Mankad dismissal of English batsman Jos Buttler in an Indian Premier League game was nowhere near in the spirit of the game, it was also illegal in the laws of cricket.

And here lies the problem.

While the veteran off-spinner is celebrating the incorrect dismissal of Buttler at the non-striker’s end during Ashwin’s Kings XI’s 14-run IPL win over Rajasthan, a bigger issue has again come to the surface about India’s influence in world cricket.

The nation may have a stranglehold on the game due to their financial might, but they are not even slightly qualified to go around acting as the bastions of the principles of cricket.

After Tuesday’s game, which featured the return of former Australian captain Steve Smith, who was dismissed for 20, a defiant Ashwin argued that whether his actions were in the spirit of the game were irrelevant because what he did was legal.

So new Mankad rules state that:
‘Bowlers at all levels of cricket will be able to run-out the non-striker up to the instant at which they "would be expected to deliver the ball”

You could surely argue that he would have been expected to have delivered the ball by now? pic.twitter.com/Ps6kCHFB9K

— Derek Alberts (@derekalberts1) March 25, 2019

“It was very instinctive. It was not planned or anything like that. It is there within the rules of the game,” Ashwin said.

Wrong.

According to the MCC, the actual custodians of the laws of cricket, a change was made in 2017 under rule 41.16 non-striker leaving his/her ground early:

“If the non-striker is out of his/her ground from the moment the ball comes into play to the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the bowler is permitted to attempt to run him/her out.”

Ashwin baulked at delivering the ball, waited for Buttler to leave his crease and then removed the bails.

At the point Buttler was still in his crease, there was no way in the world Ashwin was in a position to bowl the ball, so it’s irrelevant that he wandered outside his crease at the point Ashwin would normally have released the ball.

Mankad is legal & no batsman can complain if its done.

In this case, clearly Ash framed him. Butler was just going with the bowlers flow & realised Ash didn’t release the ball. He wasn’t trying to steal run

As a KXIP fan, I can’t appreciate this act from Ashwin pic.twitter.com/BQonjaDNaX

— Guru Prasanna (@GurupBhat) March 25, 2019

Ashwin, 32, a veteran of 64 Tests, 111 one-day and 46 T20 internationals, obviously doesn’t read the rule book.

“I don’t really understand where your spirit of the game comes from,” Ashwin said. “Because, quite naturally, if it’s there in the rules it’s there, so probably the rules need to go back and be sorted.”

More worryingly, it appears the third umpire doesn’t know the laws of the game either.

There’s a reason cricket switched to neutral umpires in internationals, to help maintain the integrity of the sport.

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Originally published as Ravi Ashwin’s Mankad was against the laws, never mind the spirit of cricket