ICC advised to deter backing up

Cricket365
June 6, 2014

The International Cricket Coucil's cricket committee has recommended batsmen must be "deterred" from leaving the non-striker's crease prematurely.

England batsman Jos Buttler was the victim of the so-called 'Mankad' dismissal during Tuesday's fifth and final ODI against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

The controversial incident saw Buttler run out at the non-striker's end by bowler Sachithra Senanayake – in the 44th over of the hosts' innings. Umpires Chris Gaffaney and Michael Gough conferred before ruling the right-hander out for a stifled 21. Buttler had been warned prior to the previous delivery.

"The cricket committee believes that a non-striker should be deterred from leaving his or her crease before the time the bowler normally delivers the ball," read a statement from the committee.

"It did not support a formal warning being introduced prior to a bowler being eligible to run out a non-striker, but it did support the view expressed by some captains that the umpires shouldn't ask the captain whether he wanted the appeal to stand before making a final decision.

"The law strikes a sensible balance between preventing a batsman from gaining an advantage, whilst at the same time preventing the bowler from unfairly seducing the batsman into leaving his crease by faking to deliver and then holding on to the ball."

Buttler has since insisted Senanayake's choice was contrary to the character of the match, which Sri Lanka won comfortably to secure a three-two series triumph. The Englishman, who was heavily tipped for a Test call-up, meanwhile, has been excluded from the squad for next week's series opener at Lord's.

"I don't think it was a great thing to see in cricket from my point of view," he told <i>Sky Sports</i>. "But the guys will have forgotten about that and if you look at the game I don't think we were good enough to win it. It's all forgotten about and hopefully England can go on and win the Test series.

"Personally for me it's not in the spirit of the game, but if you look at it like that there are loads of issues that you can talk about. You could talk about it forever but I prefer just to move on from it and I look forward to playing cricket again."