Former Indian cricket team coach Ravi Shastri opens on Deepti Sharma-Charlie Dean Run Out Controversy and says that a batsman has no business to be wandering out of his crease before the ball is bowled.
Ravi Shastri Backs Deepti Sharma
The incident takes place during the third and final women’s ODI between India and England where Deepti Sharma had run Charlie Dean out(Mankad) and snatched the victory from England by 16 runs.
Deepti Sharma’s run-out of Charlie Dean has become the talkative point of the cricket community where one half states it as “against the spirit of cricket” while the other half says it as a “legitimate dismissal”.
Though Mankad lays within the ICC rules, several current and former England players including other experts in the British media critise Deepthi Sharma.
While the ICC has now made it legal to run out batters who back up too far, several former players questioned Deepti’s act and said that it was against the spirit of the game. But Former Indian cricket team coach Ravi Shastri backs Deepti Sharma and says:
“My thoughts are very clear. It’s a law. A batsman has no business to be wandering out of his crease before the ball is bowled. And the law in cricket says that if you are doing that, the bowler is perfectly entitled to take the bails off.
I know that the rule of ‘Mankad’ or ‘Mankading’ was there was a long time and a lot of players are still trying to come to terms with that new law, whether they should be taking off the bails but as a coach, I would tell my players ‘Just go out and do it.
It’s a law. You’re not cheating, you’re not doing anything that is not part of the game. Batsman should know his business,” he said.
“There is an outrage but it’s because that law did not exist earlier. But my argument is that even if it had existed, I don’t believe this practice when you warn the player the first time and the second time you can do it.
It’s like me telling a fielder, ‘You’ve dropped me once. The second time you can catch it’. If it’s a law that says it is cheating. It is cheating because if you’re going out of the crease, you are trying to steal an advantage over the opposition and the bowler. So, you jolly well, hold your ground.”
Deepti Sharma revealed that she gave a prior warning to Charlie Dean before she was finally run out for backing up.
“It was our plan because she was leaving the crease repeatedly. We have even warned her. So, whatever we did was according to the rules and regulations,” Deepti Sharma said. “We had told the umpires too. But she was still doing it, so we had no other option.”
