Murali Kartik ‘Mankaded’ Bengal player

This is not the first time that Kartik has ‘Mankaded’ a player in a first-class game. He did the same playing for Surrey against Somerset last year, where he ran Alex Barrow out in the same fashion, which is widely believed to be a reason for the loss of his county contract. The incident happened in the 80th over of the Bengal innings with their score at 120 for three. Sandipan, batting on 19, just backed up at non-striker’s end as Kartik whipped off the bails and appealed for run-out which is also known as ‘Mankading’. Umpire Milind Pathak referred to the TV umpire and Sandipan was given out. A disgusted Bengal bench stood up at what happened with their skipper Malhotra and senior pacer Ashoke Dinda being furious as they found it against the ‘Spirit of the Game’. As per rules, Kartik was well within his rights as he had warned Sandipan in the previous over for backing up too far.

‘On one side you have Courtney Walsh and on the other side you have ‘Sir’ Murali Kartik. He is supposed to be a Test player, county player, a commentator and what not. And this is what you do? I don’t see him bowling or batting. Probably he is there for ‘Mankading’ a 19-year-old youngster,’ Malhotra said.