Laws Give Mankad Back His Good Name At Last

Adam Collins is thrilled to note that one of cricket’s great anomalies has been addressed by the law-makers

- Adam Collins

This was the reaction of commentator Michael Holding when Sri Lanka’s Sachithra Senanayake ran out England’s Jos Buttler in a 2014 ODI.

The batsman? Out of his crease when the bails were broken. The ball? Live. “I’m not sure about that one,” Whispering Death reiterated. Why? Because the fielder was also the bowler, and the batsman was the non-striker. Cue: all hell breaking loose.

It always does.

To an extent, it is an understandable response considering how little is known about the provision for a non-striker to be dismissed when gaining an improper advantage by leaving their crease early. That is, after all, what this is.

But, mercifully, the little blue book – the MCC’s laws of the game – has this month been updated in a way that should start to unclutter the complexity of the dismissal. And help keep batsmen where they should be.

“It was pretty disappointing, to be honest with you and pretty poor so you’ll have to ask Angelo (Mathews) why he did it,” were Alastair Cook’s words at the time of the Buttler dismissal.

Ironically, the former England skipper is partially responsible for the chain reaction leading to this latest change. An unintended consequence of no-balls being checked by the TV umpire showed Cook routinely well out of his ground before he should have been. The internet noticed, and the ICC’s professional conditions were modified in 2011.

But in the recast MCC code, the new and improved law 41.16 has been amended for the millions of cricketers who play outside of elite stadiums. In basic terms, it allows for the stumps to be broken until the point where the bowler can realistically be expected to deliver.