Mankading and the Spirit of Cricket
Cricket, and only cricket, could spend the best part of a century agonising over something as straightforward as a legal run out. Seventy years after Vinoo Mankad dismissed the backing-up Bill Brown in Sydney, the Mankad’s continuing controversial reputation is symptomatic of game’s unhelpful fixation with the ‘spirit of cricket’. Vinoo Mankad’s name had become a synonymous with unfair play, but he should be remembered as an innovator not a villain. Somehow the act of running a batter out with the Mankad has become seen to be disreputable and something that is certainly not cricket . After all, a batter is just wandering a little way towards to safety of the striker’s popping crease 17.68 metres away , which is hardly a crime against cricket, is it? Yet with the Mankad and the whole notion of 'spirit', the devil is in the detail. Where do we mark the ‘line’ of encroachment acceptability for non-strikers trying to gain an advantage? Five centimetres is probably fine; one metre