Despite numerous attempts by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the ‘non-striker run-out’ remains a questionable form of dismissal across the cricket spectrum. When Deepti Sharma of India rejected the English Charlie Dean in this way, her action was cast in the bad light. Australian pacemaker Mitchell Starc, in a match against England, warned Jos Buttler that he would not leave his crease early saying “I’m not Deepti”. Starc remains someone who is not a fan of the layoff but also wants batters to stay within the lines. He has now offered an alternative to this resignation.
“Why not take it out of the hands of the interpretation and make it black and white?” Starc told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “Any time the batter leaves the crease before the front foot lands, you put him on a run. There’s no gray area then.”
“And in T20 cricket where runs are so handy at the back and games can be decided by one, two, three runs all the time, if you suddenly get 20 runs because a batter leaves early, you’re going to quit, aren’t you?
No-ball used to be a decision made purely by the line-umpires, but has now gone to the third umpire. Starc has seen that no-balls are now judged using cameras and wants a similar approach to be taken regarding non-attackers who leave their crease early.
“It’s harder to lower the levels of cricket, but especially in international cricket there will always be cameras for the front foot and for the run-outs. So why not? And if it’s the batters think about it – or prevent it from happening – isn’t that a good thing?”
“Then there’s no stigma,” Starc said. “It’s taken away from the decision to have to run someone out or think about it. If it’s blatant it’s a different story, but I feel like at least that’s completely black and white.”
Starc had decided to warn Buttler in the recent T20I against England, but it wasn’t the first time he’d done so. He also revealed the conversation he was having with Buttler at the time.
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“I have often warned batters, [Buttler] isn’t the first time,” said Starc. “I probably warned seven Kiwi batters in those ODI games at the top — some were six feet outside their crease. As I said to Jos, I would never see myself doing it [running a non-striker out]but it doesn’t mean you should feel free to leave your fold sooner.”
Many players still aren’t keen on firing batters this way, but with a high-profile tournament like the T20 World Cup Super 12s on the way, the fine line between right and wrong in terms of firing can get blurry.
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