Deepti Sharma, Mankads & imperial preference in cricket
If you are interested in cricket you may well be aware of the controversial ending to the third one day international between England and India at Lords last Saturday.
A tight finish was in prospect with England 9 wickets down, but with few balls and few runs left to get. Indian bowler Deepti Sharma ran out England batter Charlie Dean because she was out of her crease as she was in the process of bowling the ball.
This is perfectly legal under the current laws of cricket, although rarely done. There is no requirement to warn a player first, although subsequent screen shots suggest Charlie Dean was sometimes out of her crease when balls were bowled. There is nothing wrong with that except the potential risk of being run out.
Some have suggested that Deepti Sharma was not actually in the process of delivering the ball, hence it was not in play and the Umpires should have called dead ball. That view can be taken but the matter was referred to the third umpire to check the TV replays and the decision was ‘out’. That is definitive.
It has sparked a large amount of on-line and print comment (a whole page in the Telegraph) often from old white blokes (I am one and was watching the game) who are not always that interested in women’s cricket (some are of course).
They didn’t think the dismissal, known as a Mankad after the first player that did it, was fair. It was not in the ‘spirit of cricket’. I suspect that many think the MCC own this concept and get to define it.
They don’t. The days of imperial preference in cricket are over.
Leave a Reply