Ricky Ponting Asserts He And Ravichandran Ashwin Have Reached A 'Common Ground' In The Mankade Debate

Ricky Ponting, former Australian captain and Delhi Capitals coach, has claimed that he and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on the same page regarding running out batsmen backing up too far at the non-striker end before the ball is delivered.

Ponting had courted a controversy after he said in a recent interview that he will not allow Ravichandran Ashwin to ‘mankade’ the batsman under his watch at the Delhi Capitals. Ashwin had kicked up a huge storm in the last storm in the last edition of the Indian Premier League when he ran out Jos Buttler for backing up too far at the non-striker’s end.

However, Ashwin and Ponting had an open discussion on the top and by the looks of it, the duo may have reached a common ground s Punter agreed with the champion Indian off-spinners logic.

“He (Ashwin) made me get on a podcast with him when I first arrived here to have a good open chat about it. I think we’re both on the same page. He feels he did everything in the rules and laws of the game and he’s absolutely right,” Ricky Ponting told Cricket.com.au.

“He’s saying, ‘What if it’s the last ball of the IPL, what if I’m bowling and the batting teams need two runs to win and the non-striker is charging halfway down the wicket? What do you expect me to do’? “There’s an argument there as well, but as I said to him, I would expect that he would hold on to the ball and not Mankad and tell the batsman to stay in his crease next time and see if he’s good enough to try and close the game out for us,” Ricky Ponting added.

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‘Batsmen shouldn’t be cheating’- Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting made it clear that there is no place for cheating, which is the case when the non-striker is backing up too far out of the crease.

The former Australian captain also asserted that there should be a change in the law to prevent the batsmen from ‘cheating’, adding that the batting team should be penalized for the same.

“It shouldn’t get to that stage anyway, batsmen shouldn’t be cheating. That’s what batsmen are doing, batsmen are actually cheating by trying to steal a yard or two here or there. It’s something that needs to be addressed. I think something has to happen with the laws of the game to make sure batsmen can’t cheat and there certainly shouldn’t be the rule the way it is. I think if you bring in some sort of run penalty for the batsman if they’re deliberately leaving their crease and pinching ground that might be the way to go about it,” he added.

“I’m sure those discussions are happening at the moment because I don’t think it’s a good look on the game. I think something is going to have to change,” Ricky Ponting signed off.

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