'Yay or nay?' - Top Australian cricketers have their say on mankading

One of the biggest talking points in cricket in the recent past has been the ‘Mankading’ mode of dismissal i.e. running the non-striker out for backing up too far. Ravichandran Ashwin had sent the social media and cricketing world into a frenzy when he ran Jos Buttler out for backing up too far last year during the IPL. People had varied opinions but it is in the laws of the game. However, there’s a lot of talk about spirit of cricket.

The most recent incident and talking point broke out during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup group stage game between England and South Africa. It was a tight game with South Africa needing seven runs to win off the last four balls. Katherine Brunt was the bowler for England while Sune Luus and Mignon du Preez were batting in the middle.

Brunt stopped in her delivery stride on the third ball of her final over as Luus was backing up too far but the England pacer didn’t take the bails off. It did become a talking point whether Brunt should’ve ran Luus out as it’s well within the laws of the game.

However, most England players admitted that they would never do something like that and hence, Brunt didn’t do it either. Since then, it’s become a big talking point around the Women’s T20 World Cup. Quite a few players have been asked about it in the press conference and there have been varied answers.

Paine, Cummins in favour of mankading but Smith, Maxwell, Starc say ‘no’

Some of the top players from the Australian men’s cricket were also asked the same question, whether to Mankad or not. Once again, there were very varied and different opinions. But there were a few more players saying no than yes. In a video uploaded by cricket.com.au, most batsmen inclined towards ‘no’ barring Tim Paine.

He elaborated by saying most other dismissals like LBW, runout, caught, etc are the same. “Leg before is the same, isn’t it? Run out, caught. People do it but get in trouble for going against the spirit of cricket, but it’s in the rules,” Paine said in the video.

Pat Cummins revealed that he was against it before but now, he’s leaning in favour of it. “I used to be a no, but I’m starting to come around to a yes,” Cummins added.

The other stars like Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, James Pattinson and Alex Carey are not in favour of it. Meanwhile, Adam Zampa, Peter Siddle, Kane Richardson and Matthew Wade did say ‘yes’ and some of them also added a tinge of humour in their response.

Here’s the video: