Playing by the rules isn't out of line

In a parallel universe, one where playing against the 'spirit of cricket' is not awkwardly juxtaposed with playing by the official rules, Keemo Mandela Angus Paul would've been an unabashed hero.

West Indies' fate in the Under-19 World Cup rested in Paul's hands when he was given the ball to defend three runs off the final over in a Group C fixture on Tuesday (February 2). Zimbabwe had just one wicket to play with, narrowing down their margin of error too, considerably. Paul ran in, and found a window of opportunity in his delivery stride. He knocked the bails off as Richard Ngarava was starting to make his move for the run.

Replays showed that his bat was on the line when the bails were clipped, sending Zimbabwe out of the tournament. Sure, it was a cruel, cruel way to miss out on a massive qualification but to deride Paul for his apparent failure to uphold the spirit of the game is laughable.

"Cricket is a game of uncertainties. We've seen it happen in cricket before. It's not a big deal for us. It's probably not in the spirit of the game, but we're happy to have won," Shimron Hetmyer, the West Indies captain said at the post-match presentation, putting out his team's honest view of the incident. Stephen Mangongo, the Zimbabwean coach, showed great poise and character while responding to the incident. Emotions must've been running high in the Zimbabwean camp, but Mangongo made an informed comment on the turn of events.

"I am proud of my boys. Restricting the West Indies for 226 on a batting-friendly wicket was a good performance and we were up for the chase. And like any other games, we lost quick wickets under pressure. I am disappointed with the way the game ended. I have debriefed the boys in the dressing room and they were all crying. We have explained that technically the run-out is legal. We left it to the last man and we should not have done that. It was a hard lesson and they have learnt it the hard way," he said.

A host of current cricketers took to twitter to pour out their feelings about the 'Mankading' but the late Sir Donald Bradman had made an exceptionally valid point about it in his book 'Farewell to Cricket', published in 1950. Bradman was the skipper of Australia in the fixture when the original incident was carried out - by India's Vinoo Mankad - who ran out Bill Brown at the non-striker's end during the second Test in Sydney in 1947. There was a lot of criticism hurled Mankad's way that bemused Bradman.

"For the life of me I cannot understand why. The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the non-striker must keep within his ground until the ball has been delivered. If not, why is the provision there which enables the bowler to run him out? By backing up too far or too early, the non-striker is very obviously gaining an unfair advantage there was absolutely no feeling in the matter as far as we were concerned, for we considered it quite a legitimate part of the game. Mankad kept the non-striker honest," the great Australian wrote.

It has been 68 years since the incident, but every time there is a similar one, critics, with their sharpened daggers, are out in full voice and numbers. This time, West Indies' 'opposite act' in 1987 serves as an example to prove how Paul was on the wrong side of moral ethics. In the 1987 World Cup, Courtney Walsh opted not to 'Mankad' Pakistan's Saleem Jaffer in the final over of a game where semifinal qualification was at stake. West Indies, the two-time champions and three-time finalists, lost the fixture but Walsh was hailed for his gesture.

That a section of the cricketing world believes there's an unwritten rule about not carrying out what is deemed as a legal dismissal is baffling, to put it mildly. That a dismissal can be both legal and unethical defies logic.

In 2012, Ravichandran Ashwin had Mankaded Lahiru Thirimanne after giving him a warning. But the stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag decided to withdraw the appeal, in anticipation of being told that they played against the Spirit.

In an ODI at Edgbaston in 2014, Sachitra Senanayake, the Sri Lanka spinner, warned Jos Buttler once for loitering too far ahead of the crease at the non-striker's end before the ball was delivered. Buttler did not mend his ways and Senanayake went ahead and clipped the bails at the next opportunity to send him packing. Loud boos rang around the stadium for the rest of the fixture, and the England players frowned upon the incident.

However, the world cricket committee of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), whose chairman is former England captain Mike Brearley and whose members include Australia greats Rodney Marsh and Steve Waugh, as well as India's Rahul Dravid and Pakistan's Majid Khan, insisted Buttler, not Senanayake, was at fault. The same MCC that drafted the 'Spirit of Cricket' concept.

In the late 1990s, Ted Dexter and Colin Cowdrey - two former English captains and distinguished members of the MCC had sought to include 'Spirit of Cricket' in the laws of the sport, which would remind players of their responsibility for ensuring that cricket is always played in a truly sportsmanlike manner. In 2000, a Code of Laws was introduced which included a Preamble on the Spirit of Cricket.

That said, the MCC committee in 2014 did not condemn Senanayake's acts that supposedly was a breach of spirit.

"The unanimous view of the committee was that if the non-striker is out of his ground earlier than allowed in either the Laws of Cricket or the International Playing Conditions, then he can have no complaints should he be dismissed in this manner," an official statement said.

As per the International Cricket Council's Law 42.15, "the bowler is permitted, before releasing the ball and provided he has not completed his usual delivery swing, to deliberately attempt to run out the non-striker. Whether the attempt is successful or not, the ball shall not count as one of the over. If the bowler fails in an attempt to run out the non-striker, the umpire shall call and signal Dead ball as soon as possible."

The current version of the rule, updated in July 2015, doesn't even warrant a warning from the bowlers and as ironic as it gets, the overwhelming critism for Tuesday's events are way out of line.