New Delhi: A proud Indian, Sunil Gavaskar would always get furious whenever anyone in his vicinity uttered the word 'Mankading', as he felt that it was an insult to one of the country's first superstar cricketers, Vinoo Mankad.
In the 1948 tour of Australia, Mankad had famously run out home team keeper Bill Brown, who would often leave his crease at the non-striker's end, to gain a few yards. Mankad did warn Brown a couple of times before running him out for trying to "unfairly gain ground". It was a perfectly legal mode of dismissal, but the Australian media termed it 'Mankading'.
When Ravichandran Ashwin ran Jos Buttler out during an IPL game, all hell broke loose with Jimmy Anderson, playfully (but not without making a point), putting the Indian off-spinner's photograph in a shredder. Metaphorically tearing Ashwin to shreds for playing with the spirit of the game.
With the ICC finally terming it 'run out' and removing 'unfair play' in its rule book, the de-stigmatization of running players out at non-striker's has started.
The ICC's playing condition rule changes will come into effect from October 1.
Rule 1. Batters returning when caught: When a batter is out caught, the new batter will come in at the end the striker is, regardless of whether the batters crossed prior to the catch being taken.
Rule 2: Use of saliva to polish the ball: This prohibition has been in place for over two years in international cricket as a Covid-related temporary measure, and it is considered appropriate for the ban to be made permanent.
Rule 3: Incoming batter ready to face the ball: An incoming batter will now be required to be ready to take strike within two minutes in Tests and ODIs, while the current threshold of ninety seconds in T20Is remains unchanged.
Rule 4: Striker's right to play the ball: This is restricted so as to require some part of their bat or person to remain within the pitch. Should they venture beyond that, the umpire will call and signal dead ball. Any ball which would force the batter to leave the pitch will also be called no ball.
Rule 5: Unfair movement by the fielding side: Any unfair and deliberate movement while the bowler is running in to bowl could now result in the umpire awarding five penalty runs to the batting side, in addition to it being called a dead ball. Rule 6: Running out of the non-striker: The playing conditions follow the laws in moving this method of effecting a run out from the 'unfair play' section to the 'run out' section.
Rule 7: Bowler throwing towards striker's end before delivery. Rule 8: The in-match penalty introduced in T20Is in January 2022 will also be adopted in ODI matches after the completion of the ICC Men's World Cup Super
League in 2023.