Vincent Ludwig: “Dreben!”
Jane Spencer: “Frank!”
Frank Dreben: “You’re both right.”
I was reminded of this great bit of dialogue from The Naked Gun while listening yesterday evening to the post-match interviews at Edgbaston. On a grey Birmingham day, the “Mankading” of Jos Buttler gave a perfect example of the grey area in cricket between law and morality.
To recap, Buttler, having been warned for backing up too early, was run out by Sachithra Senanayake. The very fact that the umpires, Chris Gaffaney and Michael Gough, gave the Sri Lankan captain, Angelo Mathews, the opportunity to retract the appeal suggests that the issue is far from black and white.
On the one hand, Senanayake was perfectly entitled to appeal, just as Mathews was perfectly entitled to uphold that appeal. No rules were broken. On the other hand, however, Alastair Cook was perfectly entitled to question whether it had been the right thing to do.
While I find it funny to see English cricket, apparently immune to accusations of sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy, back on its high horse, I have to admit to being very uneasy with Mankading. Put in Buttler’s shoes, I would have been livid. Put in Matthews’, and I know I wouldn’t have upheld the appeal.
To be fair, something has to be done. As Mathews said in his post-match interview, “I don’t know how to stop a batsman doing it continuously.” Explicitly allowing for Mankading while implicitly allowing the moral outrage that follows does nobody any favours. Neither would banning the Mankad and allowing batsmen the advantage of stealing a march. Alec Stewart, on TMS, suggested that a run penalty could be introduced, and I don’t see why “one short” could not be called, in the same way as for not reaching your crease while turning for another run is, for the non-striker leaving his crease prematurely.
There is a less radical solution. My friend Andy posted on WhatsApp a YouTube clip of Chris Gayle, bowling for West Indies, warning Eoin Morgan of the possibility of getting Mankaded. Nasser Hussain’s commentary is instructive: “That’s a warning, I think. That’s Chris Gayle’s way of warning the batsman. With a smile on his face.” Perhaps warnings, as with much in life, are more effective when done with a smile on the face. Just an idea, and it goes against the ultra-professional ethos of modern international cricket, but I think it might just work.