'Mankaded': Vinoo Mankad's son rues his legendary father is being tainted

He has been one of India’s biggest all-rounders on the 22 yards. In 44 Tests that he played between 1946 and 1959, Vinoo Mankad had scored five centuries and took eight five-wicket hauls. He had once put up 413 runs with Pankaj Roy for the opening wicket in a Test match against New Zealand in 1956. At 39 then, Mankad scored 231 which had remained the highest Test score by an Indian for decades till Sunil Gavaskar broke it in the 1980s with his 236 against the West Indies in the then Madras.

However, despite these glorious feats that are associated with Mankad, his name recently made the headlines for a less magnificent reason and that is about ‘Mankaded’. Kings XI Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin recently ran non-striker Jos Buttler of Rajasthan Royals in a game in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 and the cricketing world was sharply divided over the incident. While Ashwin got his share of support for the act was not out of the law’s ambit, purists were upset saying he violated the game’s gentleman spirit.

Amid all the noise, Vinoo Mankad’s successor is not happy. Rahul Mankad, the man’s only surviving son and a former first-class cricketer, feels his legendary father’s name gets tainted each time a bowler chooses to ‘Mankad’ a batsman even though the mode of dismissal is legal. The 63-year-old, who played 47 first-class and 10 List ‘A’ games in the 1970s and 1980s, feels there is no need to drag his father’s name into it since the dismissal is absolutely fine as per the rule books.

The unusual dismissal got its name after the senior Mankad as he had ran an Australian batsman Bill Brown out in that manner on more than one occasion during India’s first-ever tour of Australia in 1947. The Australian media had criticised him for the act though the great Don Bradman, who had led the home side in that series, backed the Indian cricketer. There have been quite a few instances of ‘Mankading’ in international cricket though it was for the first time that it happened in the IPL.

Australian journalists coined the phrase

“The mode of dismissal is within the laws of cricket. It was not as if my father did it the first time, or it hasn’t been done subsequently. I think it was Australian journalists who had coined the phrase (way back in the 40s). The ICC has already ruled that the mode of dismissal should be called run out. I think it’s appropriate,” Rahul was quoted as saying by Mumbai Mirror.

Mankad junior said he had spoken on the matter with former greats like Gavaskar, the Chappell brothers and Michael Holding and none of them had any issue with the dismissal. “But this doesn’t die as a controversy, it’s unfortunate that my father’s name is tainted because of this,” the 63-year-old, who is settled in Australia, said.

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