Ricky Ponting says no to Mankading, will warn R Ashwin against it

Former Australian legend and Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting has cleared his stance in the opposition of ‘Mankading’. The specific type of dismissal named after a former Indian great, Vinoo Mankad, involves running out the non-striker before the ball is delivered. Delhi Capitals will not be adopting this perfectly legal mode of dismissal under Ponting’s watch. The coach will also have a talk with R Ashwin who will be joining his squad this season.

Speaking on The Grade Cricketer podcast, Ponting gave his opinion of R Ashwin and him mankading Jos Buttler in one of the IPL matches.

“I’ll be having a chat with him about [mankad], that’s the first thing I’ll do,” Ponting said about Ashwin, who was traded from Kings XI Punjab to Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2020. “Obviously, he wasn’t in our squad last year…he’s a terrific bowler, and he’s done a great job in the IPL for a long period of time now, but I must admit watching that last season, as soon as it happened and he did that, I actually sat our boys down and said ‘Look, I know he’s done it, there’ll be others around the tournament who’ll think about doing this well but that’s not going to be the way that we play our cricket. We won’t be doing that’.”

Ashwin, India’s ace off-spinner, has time and again supported his act of running the non-striker out. The type of dismissal is legal according to the laws of cricket but has often been scoffed at with many viewing it as a move against the spirit of cricket.

With Ponting as the head coach, he will be trying to persuade Ashwin against attempting Mankading. “So, that’s going to be a conversation and that’s going to be a hard conversation I will have to have with him, but I’m pretty sure he’ll take it on the chin. I think, even him, looking back now, probably he’d say it was within the rules and he’s right to do it, but this is not within the spirit of the game, not in the way I want, at least with the Delhi Capitals anyway,” Ponting added.