Former Indian cricketer Murali Kartik has recently recalled the mankading controversy from his county stint in England with Surrey back in 2012 when he was threatened and booed by the local English crowd in Taunton.
Kartik further revealed that he along with Surrey skipper Gareth Batty was booed and threatened by the traditional England crowd after mankading Somerset’s Alex Barrow in a county game, and even the threat of the local crowd was intimidating which forced his wife to leave the ground.
The infamous incident took place during a County Championship Division One match between Surrey and Somerset in Taunton in 2012. Batting at No.6 in the second innings, Barrow was backing a bit too much and even he was warned by Kartik, but the Somerset left-hander didn’t listen and continued to gain an unfair advantage by taking a few strides forward even before the ball was delivered.
Barrow’s act was not liked by the Surrey fans, Karthik and his skipper Batty and the India bowler did the needful as he ran out Barrow through Mankading which led Surrey to apologize for the same.
Kartik told R Ashwin in a YouTube show DRS with Ash: “My wife ran away from the ground. It was that kind of a threat with the crowd booing and all. They almost entered the dressing room.”
The leg-spinner also did the same to Bengal batsman Sandipan Das while playing for Railways in 2013 when the batsman was backing a bit too much at the non-striker’s end.
He recalled, “In my case, I warned the batsman thrice. They never spoke about that. Despite the warning, they are blaming the bowler. I am ready to run out all the 11 batsmen if they step out before I deliver the ball.”
Kartik also believes that the spirit of cricket law is biased towards the batsman when it comes to Mankading.
He signed off by saying, “What the bowler is doing is right and the batsman is wrong. By bringing in the spirit of cricket, they have made the bowler the villain, which is so wrong. In fact, it (2012 incident) went into the MCC, where they discussed the rules.”
(With NEW18 Inputs)
