Warner still believes Mankading is 'spirit of cricket issue and batter's fault'

Karachi: Australian opener David Warner still believes run-out at non-striker's end is a "spirit of cricket issue and batter's fault" despite the MCC amending the code to remove it from unfair play laws.

Custodians of cricket laws, the Marylebone Cricket Club last week re-classified the controversial runout, from law 41's 'unfair play' and incorporated it within law 38 pertaining to legitimate run outs. It's one of the nine changes that the MCC made which are set to be in effect from October 2022.

"I still think the history of the game suggests it's a spirit of cricket thing... You don't expect players to do that," Warner told Cricket Australia in Karachi ahead of the second Test against Pakistan beginning here on Saturday.

"I do agree with the fact that if you are backing up, and you're out of your crease by a long way (you are fair game).

"I think it happened more predominantly at the end of a white-ball 50-over games, or obviously in T20 cricket we've seen it but at the end of the day, as a batsman, you've got to stay in your crease.

"There's no doubt about that, and if you're silly enough to get caught out like that and run out, that's your own fault. You're told not to leave before the bowler lets the ball go, so just don't do it," Warner said.

The dismissal first came to be known when the legendary former India all-rounder Vinoo Mankad twice ran out Australia opener Bill Brown at the non-striker's end -- once in a tour game against an Australia XI at the SCG in 1947, and then again in the second Test of the ensuing series.

The Australian media dubbed it as 'Mankading', a name which stuck in popular parlance but was vehemently opposed by legends like Sunil Gavaskar for being "disrespectful" towards Mankad.

Warner does not believe the switch from 'unfair' to 'legitimate' will stop some players from employing it. "I think what's important for the game of cricket is that bowlers don't be looking for that, because then you're going to slow the game down even more," he said.

"I know from before, being a captain, it can be frustrating and you're taking time out of the game. "So there's some areas there that need to be addressed, but that's on an individual basis," he added.

Requires zero skill: Broad

England fast bowler Stuart Broad also has endorsed Warner's views. Responding to MCC's announcement, Broad wrote on Twitter "Hasn't it always been a legitimate dismissal and whether it is unfair is subjective? and added Mankad "requires zero skill".

Indian ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had ignited the debate about the tactic's legitimacy by dismissing England's Jos Buttler in an Indian Premier League match in 2019.