IPL 2020: SRH bowling consultant Muttiah Muralitharan suggests five penalty runs to stop teams from 'mankading'

Legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan clarified his stand on the ‘mankading’ debate recently. Mankading is a form of dismissal where a bowler can run out a batsman if he leaves the crease before the completion of a delivery. The former Sri Lanka bowler said neither the bowler nor the batsman should be allowed to take advantage in this situation. Speaking to Hindustan Times, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)’s bowling consultant said that a penalty of five runs should be introduced so that the whole provision of mankading can be dealt with easily. [caption id=“attachment_8821321” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] According to Muttiah Muralitharan, five penalty runs should be awarded to the erring player’s team. Sportzpics[/caption] According to the spinner, the penalty runs should be awarded to the erring player’s team. This will stop a batsman from going too ahead in the pitch before a delivery and also stop a bowler from running out a non-striker without giving warnings. “If the bowler should not have the unfair advantage of running out the batsman, the latter too should not have the unfair advantage of proceeding too ahead in the pitch in order to take a run. I believe warnings should be given. Rather than giving the batsman out, five penalty runs should be added to the erring team if an umpire feels that the non-striker or the bowler is taking unfair advantage,” said Muralitharan. In August, Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who has been at the centre of the debate, suggested a “free ball” system for bowlers if batsmen went out of the crease. While there are no rules against the use of such dismissal, many legendary players have criticised mankading. Ashwin received wide backlash after mankading Jos Butler in an IPL match last year. Since then Ashwin has jumped tents from Kings XI Punjab to play for Delhi Capitals in 2020 and publicly spoke on the topic with Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting. The Australian had earlier stated that Mankading was not in “the spirit of the game”.