Ponting warns Ashwin he won’t have ‘Mankading’ in his IPL team

The Australian great, who will again coach the team in next month’s star-studded tournament, said the controversial tactic might be legal, but it was against the spirit of the game.

All-rounder Ashwin sparked controversy and a worldwide debate last year with his “Mankading” of England batsman Jos Buttler when the spinner was captain of Kings XI Punjab.

He has been hired by Delhi Capitals for next month’s IPL in the United Arab Emirates, and Ponting said he will be talking to Ashwin as a priority.

“I’ll be having a chat to him about that, that’ll be the first thing I do,” he told the Grade Cricketer podcast on Wednesday.

“It is going to be a hard conversation I’ll have to have with him, but I’m pretty sure he’ll take it on the chin.

“He will say that it was within the rules and he had his rights to do it, but it’s not within the spirit of the game or certainly the way I want the Delhi Capitals to play.”

The dismissal was named after India’s Vinoo Mankad, who ran out Australia’s Bill Brown by removing the bails at the bowler’s end during the 1947 Sydney Test.

The mode of dismissal, while legitimate, has been widely considered unsporting.

But opposition to it has been softening recently, particularly in limited-overs cricket, when non-strikers can gain an unfair advantage by leaving the crease early.

Ashwin employed the tactic last year, stopping in his delivery stride to whip off the bails while Rajasthan Royals’ Buttler was backing up out of his ground.

“If a bowler was to stop and the batsman was a foot out of his crease for instance, just penalise them some runs or something,” Ponting said in suggesting an alternative.

“If the umpires make a stance and do something to actually warn the batsman that they might be cheating, then I think that’s better than having an ugly incident like a Mankad.”