'Mankad' no longer unfair play, use of saliva banned as MCC announces new rules

London: Mankad, one of the most controversial modes of dismissal in cricket, has been moved from the "unfair play" section of the MCC's laws of the game to "run out" to avoid any negative connotation over what is a legal play.

The act of a bowler stopping to run out a non-striker who moves out of its crease has long been a debate whether it is in the spirit of the game.

However, now referred to in the laws of the game as "running out the non-striker" should serve to remove any debate around it.

"Since the publication of the 2017 Code of the Laws of Cricket, the game has changed in numerous ways. The 2nd edition of that Code, published in 2019, was mostly clarification and minor amendments, but the 2022 Code makes some rather bigger changes, from the way we talk about cricket to the way it's played," said Fraser Stewart, MCC Laws Manager.

Whilst the amendments are being announced now, they will not come into force until October. The changes are intended to shape the game of cricket as it should be played.

Moreover, using saliva on a ball will be considered tampering and has been banned by the MCC.

The use of saliva to polish a ball was outlawed amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But MCC's research found that "this had little or no impact on the amount of swing the bowlers were getting", with sweat deemed equally effective.

The new law will remove any grey areas of fielders eating sugary sweets to alter their saliva to apply to the ball. Using saliva will be treated the same way as any other unfair methods of changing the condition of the ball.

In other changes, a new batter coming to the crease will face the next ball regardless of the previous pair had crossed while the ball was in the air before being caught.

Unfair movement by the fielding side will see the batting side awarded five penalty runs.

A wide will apply to where the batter is standing, where the striker has stood at any point since the bowler began their run up, and which would also have passed wide of the striker in a normal batting position.

From a pitch invader to a dog running onto the field, sometimes there is outside interference – if this is the case, and it has a material impact on the game, the umpires will call and signal dead ball. (UNI)