Kieron Pollard stops short of pulling off a Mankad in a CPL 2017 game

Cricket is called a ‘Gentleman’s Game’ as it is expected for the players to play with sportsmanship and in good spirit. The game witnessed such an incident in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) today as Kieron Pollard stopped from mankading the opposition batsman who was out of the crease well before the ball was delivered.

The incident occurred in a league match between Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbados Tridents. However, there were no controversies as the all-rounder put the cricketing spirit on top rather than thinking of just taking a wicket or winning the game. Interestingly, the situation of the match was desperate for Pollard’s side and still, he decided against it which has to be appreciated.

The actual incident

It was the most crucial 19th over of the innings when Pollard was on his way to deliver the third ball. The batsman Keemo Paul took guard as the bowler started his run up but stopped moments before delivering the ball only to catch the non-striker Asad Fudadin short of his crease. Pollard could have very well taken the bails off and dismissed Fudadin, which would have earned him a wicket but he decided against it.

Though it is termed unfair and not in the cricketing spirit, the ‘mankad’ act is well within the rules of the game. The act is named after Indian batsman Vinoo Mankad who was the first player to be dismissed in the fashion back in 1947 by Australian Bill Brown.

The action at the other end must have sparked some memories for Paul at the other end as he had done just the opposite last year to dismiss a Zimbabwe batsman in a U19 game when they required 3 runs to win off the last over with a wicket in hand. Though Pollard led side Barbados Tridents lost the match narrowly in the last over, he was hailed by many for showing the sportsmanship spirit.