'That’s not the way that we play our cricket' - Ricky Ponting warns Ravichandran Ashwin against mankading

The former Australian captain and the current head coach of the IPL franchise Delhi Capitals Ricky Ponting stated that he would be having a “hard conversation” with the Indian bowler Ravichandran Ashwin about the “mankading” incident that he pulled against Jos Buttler in the last edition of the Indian Premier League. Ponting has made it clear that DC has a strict policy against this and they would not tolerate any such incidents.

Ashwin had taken the cricketing world by storm during IPL 2019 as he had dismissed the England cricketer Jos Buttler by ‘mankading’. Last year, Ashwin was the captain of Kings XI Punjab and in a match against Rajasthan Royals, he took the wicket of the opponent batsman Buttler who was backing up on the non-striker end.

This had led to a heated debate as some defended the Indian spinner, while many criticised him for not maintaining the sportsmen spirit of the gentleman’s game.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to kick-start the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League from September 19, with the final to take place on November 10 in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. Ahead of the 2020 edition, Ashwin was traded to Delhi Capitals.

I’ll be having a chat with Ashwin: Ricky Ponting

Speaking on The Grade Cricketer Podcast, Ponting said that mankading is not acceptable to me and I will give a heads up to the Indian stalwart about the same. Also, the former Australian captain had made it very clear to his last year that you might be thinking about doing the same but this is not the way we play cricket.

“I’ll be having a chat with him about [mankad], that’s the first thing I’ll do. Obviously, he wasn’t in our squad last year, he’s one of our players that we tried to afford to bring in this year.

Look, he’s a terrific bowler, and he’s done a great job in the IPL for a long period of time now, but I must admit watching that last season, as soon as it happened and he did that, I actually sat our boys down and said ‘Look, I know he’s done it, there’ll be others around the tournament who’ll think about doing this well but that’s not going to be the way that we play our cricket. We won’t be doing that’,” said the 45-year-old.

“So, that’s going to be a conversation and that’s going to be a hard conversation I will have to have with him, but I’m pretty sure he’ll take it on the chin. I think, even him, looking back now, probably he’d say it was within the rules and he’s right to do it, but this is not within the spirit of the game, not in the way I want, at least with the Delhi Capitals anyway,” he added.

However, this conversation may not go the way Ponting wants as Ashwin has repeatedly defended his actions and he sees no harm in it. He has always said, “What I did is what the rules are supposed to be.”