Yes, I was at fault, Mankading Part of the game – Buttler
Apr 6, 2019 at 2:18 PM
“Better late than never” this seems to be the perfect quote which can be used for Jos Buttler who after a span of two years has finally accepted his mistake and have realised that he was at fault when Senanayake mankaded him. The matter goes back to the year 2014 where even after being warned by the bowler Buttler was not backing his crease at the non-striker end before finally Senanayake decided to Mankad him. Sachitra Senanayake followed rules and as he warned Buttler not to leave the crease but After realising that Buttler is in no mood to listen to him Senanayake finally decided to teach him a lesson and mankaded him to send him back to the dressing room.
The umpire had no choice but to raise up his finger as he has adhered the rules. As per the rule, Buttler was at fault. Though he was not quite amused at that time with the decision but after two years he has realised that he was at fault.
“I was disappointed at the time, because it doesn’t happen very often. I thought you could do that every ball if you wanted and there would be a chance to run someone out. But the bowler would say why don’t you just stay in your crease? So I guess I did learn something from it” said Buttler.
With Mathews declaring before the match that he is ready for Manakading once again, this time, the England team and especially Jos Buttler would be quite attentive not to suffer this again.
The mankading debate was in the news a few months back too when the West Indies bowler Keemo Paul decided to mankad Zimbabwe’s Richard Ngarava to give West Indies a two-run win in their do-or-die league game during the ICC Under 19 world cup in Bangladesh earlier this year. The West Indies team who was on the verge of being eliminated took a sigh of relief and never looked back from there; they went onto win the world cup. On the other hand ,the Zimbabwe boys were seen weeping but this had no effect on Caribbean boys. According to the rule, the non-striker was out so the fielding team decided not to withdraw the appeal.
Despite being aware of the rule the batsman always breaks the rule and when Mankaded the issue of the spirit of the game arises. Still, ICC needs to take a stand on it and has to state in clear words that it is not against the Spirit of the Game.