Spirit and integrity of the game should not be damaged, says Kamran Akmal on Ravi Ashwin's mankading act

The cricketing world experienced a hard impact on Tuesday when Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) captain Ravi Ashwin chose to ‘Mankad’ Rajasthan Royals (RR) batsman Jos Buttler in the two teams’ opening game of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 in Jaipur. The unusual dismissal that Ashwin effected to see the back of Buttler who was batting well (69 off 43 balls) and looked favourite to guide his side home in the chase of 185 runs saw the experts and fans deeply divided.

RR brand ambassador Shane Warne, who had led the side to its only IPL win in 2008, was particularly ruthless and came down heavily on Ashwin in a series of tweets, questioning his action and integrity. And his words were seconded by former Pakistan wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal.

In a tweet responding to the former Australian leg-spinner, Akmal said the “spirit and integrity” of the game should be taken care of and advised Ashwin to respect the game and take lessons from his compatriots like Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly. Akmal though erred while spelling “damaged” as he wrote it “demaged”. He tagged the former India captains in his tweet as well.

its true legend…spirit & integrity of game should not be demaged so very disrespectful act @ashwinravi99 you should learn how to respect your game examples are infront of you like The great @sachin_rt s.gavasker @msdhoni @SGanguly99 https://t.co/MgDerMl0Vo

— Kamran Akmal (@KamiAkmal23) March 26, 2019

Akmal played the 2008 season when RR lifted the trophy

Kamran Akmal incidentally was a member of the Shane Warne-led outfit that had won the IPL title in 2008. He had played five games in that edition besides the final in which he scored just six. That was the only time when he played in the IPL as Pakistani players found it tough to play in the tournament in the subsequent years because of deteriorating political relations between India and Pakistan.

Coming back to the ‘Mankading’ incident, the Kings captain was unfazed by the criticism even as the RR camp criticised him strongly. The incident had a telling impact on the game as the RR, who were comfortably placed at 108 for 1, lost their way following Buttler’s dismissal and fell short of the KXIP’s score of 184 by 14 runs.

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