The summer of 2014 was a memorable one for Sri Lanka. The tourists were the underdogs as Asian nations don’t fare too well in early English summer, but Angelo Mathews’ side made quite an impression recording a come from behind win in the ODI series before recording their first ever Test series win in England. This was a bitterly contested series and the ‘Mankading’ controversy involving off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake further strained relationships.
It is England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, who is in the news having been run out by Ravichandran Ashwin for backing up too far in the IPL. Ironically, it was Buttler who was at the center of controversy in 2014 as well as the Sri Lankans came under heavy flack for not playing the game in the right spirit.
Behind the bowler’s arm – Rex Clementine
Rex Clementine has played a long innings ….
Senanayake certainly wasn’t the one who made the decision to run out Buttler although the focus was on him having inflicted the run out.
It was during the previous ODI at Lord’s, which Sri Lanka won by seven runs, the tourist realized that Buttler was gaining ‘undue advantage’ by taking a start at the non-striker’s end.
Buttler is one of the quickest runners between the wickets and him taking a few steps forward before the ball had been delivered was helping England, the Sri Lankans felt.
In the fourth ODI, during the 133-run stand between Buttler and Ravi Bopara, the Sri Lankans observed that both batsmen were taking starts before the ball had been delivered. Buttler went on to smash 121 off 74 deliveries with 11 fours and four sixes but still wasn’t able to take England over the finish line as Sri Lanka held on to a seven run win.
It was quite a knock by the wicketkeeper batsman and following the game, the Sri Lankans discussed Buttler taking an undue advantage. A decision was taken at the team meeting ahead of the final ODI at Birmingham to warn the batsman before taking further action. The series was on a knife edge – levelled at 2-2.
All hell broke loose during the final ODI, which Sri Lanka went onto win by six wickets with ten balls to spare.
Sachithra was doing a decent job for the team bowling the death overs at the time. In the 42nd over, the off-spinner stopped twice in his delivery stride to warn both Buttler and Chris Jordan about backing up too far. Then at the completion of the over, he sent a message to the dressing room asking what was to be done?
Coach Marvan Atapattu and Manager Michael De Zoysa confirmed that they had had enough and called the bowler to run out the non-striker. The Big Three – Sanga, Mahela and Dilshan all agreed that the batsman should be run out as he was taking advantage of Sri Lanka. The final word of course had to come from Mathews and he agreed.
In his next over, the 44th of the innings, Senanayake ran out Buttler for backing up too far.
The umpire Michael Gough asked the Sri Lankan captain whether he was risking question marks over his team’s sportsmanship. When Mathews explained that they had warned the batsman, Gough gave Buttler out.
This was the first incident of ‘mankading’ since South Africa’s Peter Kirsten had been run out by Kapil Dev in 1992 and there was quite a lot of scrutiny on the Sri Lankans – particularly Senanayake.
The off-spinner was a marked man for the next couple of weeks as the cricketing world came down hard on him, but people did not realize that they were only shooting the messenger. Senanayake was only carrying team orders.
Furthermore, Buttler had been stealing runs off in the previous game and he needed to be stopped. He seems to have not learned his lesson, still repeating the same mistake 5 years later.
The Mankad, against the ‘Spirit of the Game’?
Possibly the most contentious mode of ….
There was scrutiny on everything that Senanayake did from thereon. Suddenly question marks about his action intensified. His flourishing career was disrupted after that and he is struggling to make a comeback to the side with clouds over his action.
For the post-match media briefing, instead of the captain Mathews, Mahela Jayawardene turned up and eloquently argued the case for his team. His message was loud and clear – Buttler had been warned repeatedly and Sri Lanka were within their rights to do whatever they did having warned the batsman previously.
Ex-England players criticized Sri Lanka for not playing within the Spirit of the game. But there was backing for the tourists as well. The Guardian newspaper in an editorial claimed that it Is England who should be apologizing for the incident and not the Sri Lankans.
The incident took the gloss off Sri Lanka’s remarkable series win. They finished off an excellent tour winning the two match Test series 1-0.
