Mankad is a dismissal that is considered taboo for some reason in the game of cricket even though it has now been declared completely legitimate by the ICC. It’s actually now called the run out at the non-striker’s end officially.
But, there is no general acceptance of this dismissal, particularly among the cricketers in England and Australia. Today during a club game in the Victorian state of Australia, a major clash erupted between two teams as one of the batsmen was run out at the non-striker’s end by the bowler without delivering the ball.
While the point of the bowling side, which initiated the run-out, was simply that the batsman should have remained inside his crease till the ball was released, the batting side called it an embarrassing dismissal, a disgrace, and an unacceptable act. The arguments kept going on for a fair bit of time before the game resumed.
Why is it called a mankad dismissal?
The run-out at the non-striker’s end is called mankad because it was the Indian allrounder Vinoo Mankad who had initiated this kind of dismissal for the first time against a batsman named Bill Brown. The son of Vinoo Mankad, however, had a strong objection to it and he had asked all the professional players not to associate his father’s name with the dismissal.
In the interests of cultural preservation I have laid out a selection of transcript from a Victorian subbies Mankad/runout incident over the weekend. Assistance welcome and required:
Here we go.
Oh wowee.
Great work dog.
Keep talking mate.
Stay in your crease. Simple. pic.twitter.com/8syD5obprS— Sam Perry (@sjjperry) November 20, 2022
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As the ICC has declared it a legitimate form of dismissal, changing it from “unfair play”, it’s becoming more and more common in all forms of the game now, but the debate around it remains and some past and current players just don’t seem to be ready to accept it.
There is a suggestion to the ICC to tweak the law a bit and make it clear that the batsman is allowed to leave the crease at the non-striker’s end when the bowler is at the highest point of his release. If the ball is not released after the bowler has reached the highest point, the run-out dismissal at the non-striker’s end can’t come into effect. It remains to be seen if ICC considers this suggestion in the future or not.
