Earlier this week Sri Lankan bowler Sachithra Senanayake “Mankaded” English batsman Jos Butler and the whole of world cricket went completely mental.
Traditionally, while legal, the act of Mankading is seen to be in violation of the “spirit of the game”, and those four words tend to bring out the best of the best and the worst of the worst when it comes to cricket related debates (just ask Ian Bell).
I, for one, don’t really have an opinion on this particular run out* – as I support neither England nor Sri Lanka – but I will say that it was a legal maneuver on Senanayake’s part and until the law is changed, everyone should just get on with the game – and quit backing up in the meantime.
However, off the pitch, I love it when this kind of thing happens and we all get to talk about it for a few days. It’s these bizarre intricacies of this weird little game that – at the end of the day – keep us coming back for more. Making Mankading illegal maybe would shut everyone up, but it would kill off a little bit of cricket’s soul – a little bit of its spirit, if you will – and I think that would be the real shame here.
Jos Butler’s wicket is worth the sacrifice.
And debating the “spirit of the game” – and whether or not it’s being upheld or pissed on or both – is way better than talking about spot fixing, doping or any of the other actually really horrible parts of the game.
*
In baseball, they have outlawed the always controversial home plate collision, and I gotta say that while the game might be safer and mildly less contentious, it’s also 10% less interesting, and 10% more sterile.
Cricket has been castrated enough as of late, no reason to cut anymore.
*
*I actually do have an opinion: Butler was being lazy and England batted poorly. That’s what cost them the match. Not ICC playing regulation 42-11.
Limited Overs 
Problem that I had with it, is the wording of the ICC rule v. the MCC law. As it happened, the bowler began his run-up with the preconcived notion to mankad. Thereafter, with his back foot having hit the bowling crease, after beginning his delivery stride and in the act of delivering the ball, he stops and hits the bails off. Butler, backing up, drags his bat along as he prepares to leave his ground and only pulls the bat across the line, leaving the crease a millisecond after the bowler began his “delivery stride.” Under the actual MCC law, this is not out, with the idea basically being ‘he was set up/tricked into leaving his ground’… see the balk rule in baseball for a similar approach to pick off plays at the bases. However, the ICC condition throws this very logical construction out the window and let’s bowlers “fake” a batsman out of his ground. The ICC rule on this act is plainly bad and not cricket.
Oh, and warnings from an opposing team about something they don’t like and that you may or may not be doing… Such silly things aren’t contemplated by either rule or law and really don’t amount to much more than banter or sledging.