Cricket news: Ricky Ponting outlaws unpopular Mankad

Ricky Ponting won’t tolerate Ravi Ashwin going rogue.

The former Australian cricket captain has put the Indian star on notice ahead of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL), planning to tell the off-spinner Mankads are off the table.

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Mankading refers to the bowler running out the batter at the non-striker’s end before delivering the ball if they notice the willow-wielder has backed-up too far and left their crease.

Ashwin was unapologetic after sparking huge controversy in last year’s IPL by Mankading England’s Jos Buttler, and has been vocal ever since about bowlers having the right to take such action to stop batters gaining an unfair advantage by walking down the pitch before setting off for a run.

Ponting will coach the Delhi Capitals at this year’s IPL, and Ashwin has joined the franchise after coming over from Kings XI Punjab.

Even though the tweaker is an advocate of the Mankad, Ponting will make it clear that move has no place in his team.

“I’ll be having a chat with him about (Mankading), that’s the first thing I’ll do,” Ponting said on The Grade Cricketer podcast.

“Obviously, he wasn’t in our squad last year, he’s one of our players that we tried to afford to bring in this year.

“Look, 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 as well but that’s not going to be the way that we play our cricket. We won’t be doing that’.

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“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 would rather see teams cop a runs penalty if batters at the non-striker’s end are guilty of leaving their crease early.

He believes that would discourage the practice and at the same time eliminate the need for bowlers to take action into their own hands.

“I think there are ways that you can actually stop batsmen cheating like that,” Ponting said. “If the bowler was to stop, and the batsman was a foot out of his crease for instance, why don’t you just penalise him some runs or something? Then they won’t do it again.

“You’ve only got to do that once at the start of a tournament, and then all the players see it, and you can guarantee the players won’t be fudging any ground from then on.

“I chatted to some of the match referees about it during last year’s IPL as well. If the umpires make a stance and do something to warn the batsmen that they might be cheating, then that’s better than having the ugly incident of a Mankad.”