I was pretty disappointed by Mankading of Jos Buttler, says Alastair Cook
The England captain Alastair Cook expressed that he was “pretty disappointed” by the controversial Mankading of Jos Buttler.
In the final match of the ODI series played at Edgbaston on Tuesday, England were batting first after winning the toss.
Sachithra Senanayake, when bowling the 42nd over, warned both Jos Buttler and Chris Jordan, for leaving the crease too early. In the off-spinner’s next over (44th), Buttler was run-out by Senanayake as he was backing-up too far. The Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews decided to go ahead with the appeal and Buttler was given out.
When commenting about the incident, Cook said: "I thought it was disappointing. There's a line and that line was crossed here. I've never seen it before in the game and I was pretty disappointed by it. As captain of your country, there are certain ways you want your team to operate. And obviously he is fine with it. He has said he will do it again.
"You don't know what you would do if you were put in that situation, in the heat of the moment, until you are. I'd like to think I wouldn't do it, but I suppose you just don't know.
"I haven't been in the situation, as captain of England, where I have had to make a 'spirit of cricket' call. Paul Collingwood had one a few years ago and admitted afterwards that, in the heat of the moment, he probably made a mistake,” the left-hander recollected an incident.
But the senior Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene, defended his captain and bowler. He went on to add that the batsmen has been warned twice before felt the opposition were enjoying an unfair advantage by leaving the crease early.
"We gave him a fair chance," Jayawardene said. "Twice. Before the first warning, we told the umpires that he was taking too much of a lead and then he was warned again. We had to do that, because they kept doing it.
Jayawardene also revealed that backing up too far has affected their team in the series before as England batsmen ran many twos in earlier matches.
"We analysed our game after Lord's. They took 22 twos in the last 12 overs. Ravi Bopara and him ran riot. And most of the time they were taking starts that are not legal by the written laws. We just wanted to make sure we got a fair chance. We warned them and we warned the umpires, but they didn't listen to us, so we had to take the right steps.
"We always try to play in the right spirit, but if the other team is not playing in the right spirit and not going with the law, then unfortunately we had to take the law into our hands. It was the third time. It is fair enough, I think. We all need to play by the rules.
The middle order batsmen also questioned England’s refusal to abide by the rules.
"If the other sides are not going by the rules, then they're not playing by the spirit, so what can you do?" Jayawardene said.
The rules completely permit the dismissal and there is even no need to warn the batsmen in the first place.
"If he was properly trying to steal a single, I could possibly understand it. But he was half a yard out of his crease. It's pretty disappointing," Cook further said.
It was the first instance of successful 'Mankading' in international cricket since 1992.