The root of all “Mankad’s” (with apologies to Vinoo)

At the end of term we try to play a “proper” game with the age group classes, even with the younger players.

On Saturday, a small group of Dad’s gathered at the side of the hall to watch and encourage their children.

And we had calls from one father for the non-striker to “start walking” and “back up” as the bowler ran in…no wonder young batters are trying to “steal” a yard and straying out of their crease before the ball is bowled, if this is what they are being told to do!

On Mankads…or should that be “Bill Browns”

Perhaps we should really reference the “culprit” — Bill Brown, of Australia, run out backing up twice in the same season, by the same bowler!

I have written before of my thoughts on running out the non-striker — frankly, there’s no need for a special name for this form of dismissal. It’s Out!

The current Law (38.3; itself an improvement on the original text in the current edition of the Laws) could still be improved further, I believe, by reverting to the previous definition — the non-striker is liable to be run out by the bowler if he leaves his crease before the bowler enters her delivery stride i.e. when the back foot lands.

Or simply have the umpire empowered to disallow all runs when the non-striker leaves early, and award 5 penalty runs to the fielding team. This is quite explicit in Law 41.16, Batters stealing a run, but possibly never applied in a match.