The third and final ODI between India and England last Saturday (September 24) caused quite a stir after Deepti Sharma ran out Charlotte Dean at the non-striker's end.
For her antics, Deepti has received support from many while the English cricket fraternity is slamming her citing the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ argument even though this form of dismissal has been legalized by the ICC.
Amid the outrage, veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle on Friday (September 30) lashed out at the English media by writing a long thread on Twitter.
“It is a cultural thing. The English thought it was wrong to do so & because they ruled over a large part of the cricket world, they told everyone it was wrong. The colonial domination was so powerful that few questioned it,” one of Harsha’s tweets stated, which seemed to have offended England’s Test skipper Ben Stokes.
Taking to Twitter, Stokes quoted the Indian commentator’s tweet and wrote: “Harsha … bringing culture into peoples opinion over a Mankad?”
Stokes also said that he still receives messages related to a controversial incident from the 2019 World Cup final, where the ball deflected off his bat and went for four overthrows.
“Is this a culture thing?? ….absolutely not,I receive messages regarding the overthrows from people all over world,as people all over the world have made comment’s on the Mankad dismissal, not just people who are English,” he further stated.
In reply, Harsha wrote: “Well, you were not at fault on that one so with you there. On the reaction in England to the non-striker backing up, I think it is what you are told when you learn the game and so, part of culture. Very happy to chat about it one day if you have a moment. Cheers.”
To which, Stokes retorted: “What about the rest of the worlds reaction to this particular incident? England isn’t the only cricket playing nation who have spoken about the ruling.”
Coming to Deepti Sharma’s dismissal of Charlotte Dean, the MCC had earlier this year moved the mode of dismissal from the 'unfair play' section of their laws to the 'run out' section, and the ICC is set to also adopt that change from October 1, 2022.
