Delhi Capitals CEO Dhiraj Malhotra on Friday (September 11) has opened up on the Ricky Ponting- Ravichandran Ashwin mankading debate, saying two “top personalities” have cleared the air and there are no hard feelings between the two regarding the matter.
Earlier, the DC head coach Ponting had made it clear that he would not allow the veteran off-spinner Ashwin to “mankad” a batsman in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 like he did in the last season, dismissing Jos Buttler in a controversial manner, as it is against the spirit of the game.
The matter has grabbed a lot of headlines on social media, depicting differences between Ponting and Ashwin ahead of the IPL 2020 in the UAE and Mr. Malhotra has also claimed that it was portrayed totally in a different way but now everything is fine after they discussed Mankading in the UAE.
Well, Ponting and Ashwin both recently agreed that batsmen are 'cheating' if they are backing up too far at the non-striker's end after a 'good chat' with Indian spinner over a video call from their hotel rooms in the UAE with Australian legend understood the psyche of the experienced spinner behind his move.
However, Ponting insisted he would still expect Ashwin to warn the batsmen first if they are leaving their crease before the ball being delivered during the upcoming IPL 13 starting on 19th September.
DC CEO Malhotra told Khaleej Times on Friday: “It was totally taken out of context. Ponting was having banter with his friends back home, it was not how it was portrayed.”
He concluded, “Both are very serious cricketers and top personalities. They had already spoken about it in a chat show. They had a very good conversation about it. It is important that they have cleared the air. There are no hard feelings at all.”
