Op-Ed l Cricket. Mankading. Hypocrisy. Racism

Op-Ed by Amit KumaR Agarwal
 
 
 
'Gentleman's game' better known as cricket was recently mired by a trivial controversy, with India's Deepti Sharma running out Charlie Dean in the third ODI to whitewash the ODI series.
 
Before, I write further let me clarify, I am no sports journalist. My areas of writing are entertainment, spirituality and sensuality, all very different, yet all very closely related. The 'furore', though, with which the cricketing legends jumped to put their viewpoint was motivating enough to set the ball right.
 
To put the incident in context, let's quickly go over the match details. The Indian side led by Harmanpreet Kaur scripted a historic ODI series win against England on England's turf, registering a clean sweep. The win was scripted with Sharma running out England's Charlotte Dean. During the game, Sharma  noticed that Dean was backing up too far at the non-striker end (evident from the picture above). Sharma ran her out in the 44th over, with England still needing 17 runs to win the game. 
 
This dismissal, however garnered mixed reactions. While captain Harmanpreet backed her player, England were disappointed with it with veterans and experts of the game taking to a social media site to spark a massive debate on 'Spirit of Cricket'.

Was Deepti Sharma at fault. NO. The run-out is legitimate going by the ICC manual, as the apex cricket body has already moved the dismissal from 'unfair play' to 'run out'. Another controversy is whether Sharma warned Dean or not. Though Sharma says she did, even if she didn't; Sharma didn't need to warn at all. All cricket academy's and coaches worldwide teach the rule of batting, be cautious to leave the crease, once you are sure the bowler has delivered the ball.
 
Ironically, less than 24 hours after her dismissal, the very same Charlotte Dean tried to emulate the same run out technique, during a domestic game at the Lord's, in the final of the 2022 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy! The non-striker was cautious enough, with her bat well in the crease.
 
Why this unwarranted controversy. Is it a simple case of hypocrisy and racism. I decided to dig into the history of 'Mankading'. I found the very use of the term 'Mankading' to be racist.
 
Why?
 
Because, though termed 'mankading', the first known use of this 'run out technique' was by Thomas Barker against George Baigent in the Sussex v Nottinghamshire game in Nottingham in the year 1835! The 'Mankad run out' now famous as 'Mankading' happened a good 112 years later in 1947.
 
Ironically again, the players involved in the first incident, the batsman and the bowler, were both English cricketers. Interestingly, the first five 'Mankading' instances were all by the same bowler, an English cricketer, Thomas Barker. So why is it 'Mankading' - why not 'Barkering' or 'Barkerism' - doesn't it reek of racism?
 
It were the English cricketers without any doubt that invented 'the run out', now famous as Mankading - the very invention that caused the England's women team to suffer a whitewash. Them crying over it is nothing, but sheer hypocrisy!