Though it has been a week since the incident but Deepti Sharma’s run-out of Charlotte Dean still continues to be a hot topic in the cricket fraternity. Well, Deepti Sharma found herself at the receiving end of criticism after she had controversially ‘Mankading’ a set Charlie Dean for the hosts’ 10th wicket to seal the match.
While the run-out was completely within the rules and legal, Deepti Sharma’s street-smartness divided opinions and invited diverse reactions, especially in the England cricket fraternity. Several senior England men’s team players including the likes of Jos Buttler, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, and Ben Stokes took to their social media and openly expressed dismay over the incident. England media also claimed that the run-out was against the ‘spirit of cricket.’
Meanwhile, veteran cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin has lashed out at the critics and has come out in support of Deepti Sharma. Ashwin has accused the English players of always playing the victim card. Speaking on his YouTube video, Ashwin said
“Seeing people always as if they have committed a crime. In the beginning, the whole world saw it that way. But now, most of them have started realizing that the bowlers didn’t commit any crime there. Many of them have started asking why are you asking questions to the innocent instead of asking the person who should be guilty,”
He added: “Only a certain section of people seem to have a problem with this. In my opinion, they always play the victim card. But whenever there’s something new happening, there will be some resistance by a few people and that’s understandable,”
Ashwin further recalled the 2021 Ahmedabad Test match about the pitch and stated how a section of people wanted to control the narrative and influence others’ opinions. He said:
“I spoke about this during the Ahmedabad Test when the ‘pitch issue’ was brought up on what was a good pitch. I said, “Do not control the narratives” because a certain section of people consciously chooses to instill in others how they should think about certain things. They control their narratives.
“In fact, I see this as a bowlers’ revolution. If you look around the world, captains have mostly been batters. I don’t want to get into the debate on whether they know about it or not, but as the game gets competitive it’s the duty of the non-striker to stay at the crease,”
Ashwin also questioned why no questions were asked of Dean, who was leaving the crease early. Ashwin also hailed Harmanpreet Kaur for the way she backed her players. He said:
“Nobody goes to Charlie Dean and asks her, ‘Why did you leave the crease?’ They never ask the non-striker why they leave the crease early. So, people who have power only control the narratives. There’s no question about that.So, my full support and kudos to Harmanpreet Kaur more than Deepti Sharma because a captain backing the player at that moment is very, very important. She backed her player and asked back, ‘What’s wrong with that, the non-striker shouldn’t have left the crease, right?,”
He added: “If the captain had withdrawn the appeal just because of the boo from the crowd, it would have been a stigma for Deepti Sharma, the bowler, the cricketer, and the person. She would have lived the rest of her life with that,”
