Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc has an ingenious solution to the Mankad problem and keeping the non-striker in their crease – run penalties.
Fixed cameras are already used to monitor front-foot no balls, and Starc has suggested the third umpire could also monitor the batter at the same time.
“While it is hard to do at all levels, why not take it out of the hands of interpretation and make it black and white?” Starc suggested to the Sydney Morning Herald.
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“There are cameras for front foot no-balls, a camera there all the time (in international cricket) and someone watching the line.
“Every time the batter leaves the crease before the front foot lands, dock them a run. There’s no grey area then. And in T20 cricket where runs are so handy at the back end and games can be decided by, one, two, three runs all the time, if all of a sudden you get docked 20 runs because a batter’s leaving early, you’re going to stop doing it aren’t you?
“Then there’s no stigma. It’s taken away from the decision to have to run someone out or think about it. If it’s blatant, it is a different story, but I feel like that is at least completely black and white.”
Starc made headlines last week by warning English batsman Jos Buttler for leaving his crease before he had released the ball.
He said he regularly warns batters for backing up too early, including several times in recent series against New Zealand and Zimbabwe in North Queensland.
He said some Kiwi batters were up to two metres out of their crease when he warned them.
“As I said to Jos, I could never see myself doing it, but it doesn’t mean that you should then feel free to leave your crease early,” he said.
Rulemakers have attempted to make the controversial Mankad more palatable by moving the rule appendage it’s nestled in from the section covering ‘unfair play’ to the one describing the run-out as a mode of dismissal.
But the act is still very much seen as a low method of getting someone out, as shown when Indian spinner Deepti Sharma Mankadded Charlie Dean to end a recent ODI at Lord’s last month.
Starc said he believed the Mankad would make an appearance at some point during the World Cup.
“With what happened at Lord’s, with Deepti and Dean, there’s a lot of talk around it,” Starc said.
“So the flavour of the month is the run-out, what’s going on with it and the stigma around it and whether it’s right or wrong.
“I’m sure it’s probably going to pop its head up throughout the World Cup, no doubt. But whether anyone follows through and does it, I saw the captains say it wasn’t going to happen.
“It’s harder to do down the levels of cricket, but particularly in international cricket there are always going to be cameras square on for the front foot and for the run-outs. So, why not? And if it either makes the batters think about it, or stops it occurring, isn’t that a good thing?”
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