England pacer Stuart Broad resorted to bringing up Sachin Tendulkar while defending himself from criticism after it was pointed out to him that he didn’t walk after edging one to slips during a 2013 Ashes Test.
This was after Broad had taken a dig at Deepti Sharma’s run-out of Charlie Dean at the non-striker’s end during the third and final ODI between India and England women’s teams. Dean, who was on 47 at the time, backed out too far at the non-striker’s end and Deepti ran her out before completing her bowling action and delivering the ball.
This led to England losing the match by 16 runs and getting whitewashed 0-3 in their own home.
Multiple England cricketers both former and current took to Twitter to slam the Indian all-rounder for her actions, which they termed against the spirit of cricket.
In an ICC tweet that referred to the dismissal as ‘run out’, Broad wrote, “A run out? Terrible way to finish the game.”
Furthermore, Broad also wrote, “I find the debate of the Mankad really interesting. So many views from either side. I personally wouldn’t like to win a match like that, also, very happy for others to feel differently.”
Following this, Stuart Broad was reminded of the incident when he decided not to walk despite nicking the ball during an Ashes Test in 2013. Despite an edge that was caught at first slip, Broad had refused to walk.
To this, Broad defended himself and reasoned: “I’d say 99% of players I’ve played with have nicked the ball & not walked. I’d say 1% of players I’ve played with would use the Mankad as a mode of dismissal. All The Best.”
Former India cricketer Dodda Ganesh also shared his thoughts on Broad’s reaction: “Nicking the ball to first slip and standing your ground as if nothing happened, is actually terrible. A Run-out isn’t. I guess, Match Refree Chris Broad needs to educate his son on the laws of cricket”
Broad then replied to Ganesh by sharing a YouTube video of a 2008 ODI match between India and Australia. In this video clip, it was captioned as Sachin Tendulkar refusing to walk despite a nick to keeper Adam Gilchrist off Stuart Clark’s bowling.
The umpire, late Rudi Koertzen refused to give Tendulkar out, after he advanced down the track and tried to hit Clark on the legside and missed the ball which landed in Gilchrist’s gloves, who appealed loudly.
Broad posted the clip with the message: “I repeat. & have 1,000 examples- but Sachin Tendulkar was classed as “Lucky” for nicking it & not walking here. Thank you.”
This led to several reactions from Indian cricket fans on social media platform as Broad defended himself for not walking.
Here are some of them:
