During the Rajasthan Royals match against Gujarat Titans on Sunday, allrounder Ravichandran Ashwin playing for Royals once again raked up a minor controversy for his call to retire himself out while batting. While some dubbed it as an astute use of tactics, others called it pure rubbish. Whatever end of the spectrum you may find yourself nestled in, Ashwin, akin to the entire Mankad controversy has once again started a discussion.
Speaking of Mankad, today is the birth anniversary of Vinoo Mankad – arguably, one of the greatest all-rounders India has the good fortune to produce. While his legacy was tarnished by a few snobby English and Australian journalists who termed the runout on the non-striker’s end as ‘Mankad’ — the all-rounder had many more laurels to his name, which the readers might be oblivious about.
Mankad and the records
Vinoo Mankad, whose full name is MulvantraiHimmatlal Mankad played 44 Test matches for India and scored 2,109 runs with five centuries and at an average of 31.47. As a left-arm spinner, he took 162 wickets, with eight five-wicket hauls, at an average of 32.32. Moreover, he is one of the few batters to have played on all positions from no. 1 to 11.
Vinoo Mankad for a long time held the highest opening partnership record, before Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith broke it. Mankad’s opening partnership of 413 with Pankaj Roy in 1956 remained a world record for 52 years, and his 231 in that innings stayed the highest score by an Indian in a Test match for nearly three decades.
Played a pivotal role in India’s first test victory
Coincidentally, his marathon inning of 231 had broken his previous record of the highest Test score (184) by an Indian. Moreover, when India beat England to achieve its first-ever Test victory at Madras, in 1952, it was almost entirely Mankad’s doing. Showing his mettle with the ball in hand, Mankad claimed eight for 55 and four for 53 in the two innings.
The same year, he became the fastest man in history to reach a double-scoring 1,000 runs and taking 100 wickets in only 23 Tests, a record that would only be beaten 27 years later by Ian Botham.
Moreover, Vinoo Mankad was the first player to represent India after turning 40. He was 41 years and 298 days old when he played his last Test, beginning on 6 February 1959 against the West Indies. The only second player to do the same was Sachin Tendulkar when he played his penultimate Test aged 40 years and 197 days against West Indies.
Stop using Mankad to refer to runouts
With the numbers backing his talent, it is rather sad that we continue to disparage Vinoo’s name. The use of the term “Mankad” by players and commentators needs to be discouraged. Former opener and legend of the game Sunil Gavaskar, on multiple occasions, has questioned the casual racism of associating an Indian cricketer’s name with a perfectly legal mode of dismissal.
“I don’t know about it being deliberately ingrained in us but out of all the so-called unsportsmanlike acts on the cricket field, this mode of dismissal is the only one that has been given a name. With all the talk about doing away with terms like ‘Chinaman’ and ‘French cut’ because it’s politically incorrect, it’s about time this disparaging term is dumped in the bin too,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by PTI.
After Ashwin started the discussion with his runout of Jos Buttler, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) earlier this year changed the laws. One of the biggest changes was shifting ‘Mankading’ i.e running the non-striker out from Law 41 (Unfair Play) to Law 38 (Runout).
The rule change essentially means that ‘Mankading’ will no longer be officially seen as unfair or technically against the spirit of the game. It will simply be considered another form of running a batter out.
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A true trailblazer of a cricketer
Vinoo Mankad could have had more stellar numbers if he had not lost nine years of his international career to Second World War. He truly was a generational talent who is not given his due by the cricketing community.
Vinoo Mankad may have been almost forgotten today, but when he passed away in 1978, in its obituary, Wisden magazine called him “one of the greatest all-rounders that India has ever produced”, and stated that “for some years he was undoubtedly the best bowler of his type in the world.”
Also as far as I remember Mankad had issued one warning to the batsman once and still he moved out of his crease at the non-striker end, he used the lawful action to make him run out.