Cricket News

Within spirit of the game or not? Sachin Tendulkar has his take on Deepti Sharma’s run out incident

Despite the Governing body of cricket legitimising the non-striker run out, there continues to be a divided house when it comes to the cricketing fraternity. After India cricketer Deepti Sharma ran out Charlotte Dean at the non-striker’s end, people have still been expressing their displeasure on social media.

They stated that the mode of dismissal goes against the spirit of the game. Sachin Tendulkar, who is one of the greats of the game of cricket, gave a mouth-shutting reply to those people who still question the angle when it comes to the spirit of the game. In an interview with Sportstar, Tendulkar said that the dismissal is a legitimate rule as per the cricket governing body and whenever someone is going by the rulebook, it is fair and square and there’s no use in questioning their ‘spirit of the game’.

The non-striker run out is a legitimate dismissal – Tendulkar  

“Spirit of cricket… whatever you are playing within the rules of the game, that is spirit of cricket,” said former India captain. “It’s a rule now. If a player is short of the crease or doesn’t make the crease, then the batter is given out, right? Just like he misses a ball that’s heading toward stumps and in line of the stumps, he is given out lbw. So the Governing Body of Cricket has introduced the rule that if you are out of the crease (before the ball is bowled), then you are run out.”

When Tendulkar was asked whether he would run out anyone for leaving the crease too early, he said that the batter deserves to be dismissed as the mode of dismissal is well within the rules made by the cricket governing body. When asked if the Deepti Sharma episode had gone way over the top, Tendulkar firmly stood with the Indian off-spinner, saying: “She was playing to what the laws of the game are.”

The run-out featuring Deepti continues to be a hot topic of discussion among the cricketing fraternity and also the fans even as the rule makers of cricket have given the run-out dismissal a proper legalised status.