'Naive' to compare Mankading with not walking, says Stuart Broad

Sachithra Senanayake ‘Mankads’ Jos Buttler

A week after the controversial ‘Mankading’ incident took place at Edgbaston in the 5th ODI between England and Sri Lanka, Stuart Broad, in his column for the Dailymail has said that comparing the ‘Mankading’ with him not walking at the Ashes Test match at Trent Bridge last year is very ‘naive’.

“I think anyone trying to compare the ‘Mankad’ run-out of Jos Buttler at Edgbaston this week with not walking is very naive. Some people have tried, no doubt with what happened with myself in the Ashes at Trent Bridge last summer in mind. But there’s no comparison,” wrote the English pacer.

It can be recalled that during the first Ashes Test match at Trent Bridge in 2013, Broad stood his ground and waited for the umpire’s decision when he edged to slip. The decision went Broad’s way. However, the replays suggested that there was a huge nick, which the umpire failed to recognize.

“I’ve never played a game at any level, including schools cricket, where I’ve seen a batsman run out at the non-striker’s end. That’s why I think it is completely wrong and anyone who compares it to not walking is being naive,” claimed Broad.

Also defending his decision of not walking, Broad said that waiting for umpire’s call is a fair thing.

“Because I’ve only ever played with one consistent walker and that was Graeme Swann. Not walking is the norm — you wait for the umpire’s decision. That’s fair. There’s a vast difference with ‘Mankading’. It’s not the norm. I was actually surprised Angelo Matthews, as Sri Lanka’s captain, upheld the appeal,“ mentioned the right-arm fast bowler.

On his view to stop the batsmen from leaving the crease early, Broad suggested that leaving it to the umpire’s is the best option.

“But I think the major problem is it shouldn’t even be in the players’ hands. This goes above pointing at players or captains. Leave it up to the umpires. It shouldn’t be an option to have a dismissal like that because at the end of the day if you’re a supporter you’ve not seen a ball bowled, you’ve not seen a shot played but you’ve lost a world-class batsman. I can’t see any logic behind that being a mode of dismissal. It seems a really strange rule that someone can be run out like that because you’re getting no entertainment from it as a fan.

“I wasn’t in the one-day squad so I actually watched the incident in the Notts changing room during our game at Hove and everyone was pretty surprised,” Broad further added.

“As I said earlier, I think it should be in the umpires’ hands. Sri Lanka said Jos was stealing runs at Lord’s and he had a warning at Edgbaston, so the decision shouldn’t be up to the player to take the stumps, that should be the umpire saying: ‘Look, we’ve gone upstairs, you’re stealing a few too many yards, if you do it again we’ll take five off your score or we’ll take 10 off your score.’ That would stop people doing it,” Broad wrote.