“That will stop them”: Stuart Broad suggests penalty amendment for Mankad in cricket rules

During the fifth match of ICC Women’s U-19 T20 World Cup 2023 between Pakistan Women and Rwanda Women in Potchefstroom yesterday, Pakistan pacer Zaib-un-Nisa bowled an economical spell of 4-1-14-1 which played a vital role in restricting Rwanda to 106/8 in 20 overs after their captain Gisele Ishimwe won the toss and chose to bat.

Zaib-un-Nisa, however, was among the limelight throughout the day for running out Rwanda batter Shakila Niyomuhoza at the non-striker’s end. The completely legal but debatable dismissal happened on the third last delivery of the innings when Zaib-un-Nisa rightly punished Niyomuhoza for trying to gain an unlawful advantage.

Not the first bowler to attempt a run-out at the non-striker’s end in the tournament, Zaib-un-Nisa surely became the first one to dismiss a batter via this mode of dismissal.

While one continues to fail to understand a section of the cricketing fraternity’s disagreement with just another law of the sport, it was the same fraternity which found faults with Zaib-un-Nisa’s game awareness and law-abiding nature.

Stuart Broad suggests penalty amendment for Mankad in cricket rules

A vocal critic of the run-out at the non-striker’s end, veteran England pacer Stuart Broad has now come up with a penalty amendment which won’t require bowlers to pay attention on the non-striker’s movements whilst still penalizing both the batter and his team.

Broad’s alternate view to the whole debate came as a Twitter reply to former England pacer Isa Guha, who had herself given a reference of Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc also sharing a similar idea to take the matter out of players’ hands and spare bowlers from unnecessary stigma.

“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?,” Starc had told The Age last year.

And take the runs off the batters personal runs as well as the team. That will stop them!!

— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) January 15, 2023

It is noteworthy that this mode of dismissal has been the talk of the town with run-out attempts by the likes of Adam Zampa, Mohammed Shami, Daniel Christian across different matches played this month. Whether to call such a dismissal as “Mankad” or not has also started to cause dissent between family members of former India captain Vinoo Mankad.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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