The act of running out batters at the non-striker’s end has been a contentious issue in world cricket for a very long time. Last week, an incident involving Bangladesh bowler Hasan Mahmud and New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi drew significant attention, as Mahmud attempted a similar run-out on the Kiwi batter. Mahmud removed the bails before delivering the ball when he observed Sodhi had strayed out of the crease during the 46th over. Umpire Marais Erasmus referred the decision to the third umpire, who declared Sodhi out for backing up.

As Sodhi made his way back, he ironically applauded Mahmud’s actions, but Bangladesh captain Litton Das intervened and eventually allowed Sodhi to continue playing. However, this decision faced resistance from Litton’s own teammate and Bangladesh’s senior batter Tamim Iqbal, and now, South Africa legend AB de Villiers has also criticised Litton’s call.

De Villiers spoke about the incident in great detail and expressed strong reasoning on why the bowling team shouldn’t be allowed to call the batters back after the dismissal. The former South Africa captain stated that either the dismissal should be treated as any other in the game, or should be scrapped altogether.

“Something that is irritating me at the moment is the rule of the run out when the batter is leaving the crease. Ish Sodhi was called back by the captain and I think, this is a little all over the place. I looked at the footage. If I get bowled, the captain can’t feel sorry for me and call me back. Right? So, why would this rule allow the batters to be called back?” de Villiers said on his official YouTube channel.

“Where I am going with this is, I want the ICC to bring it into the rule that you can’t call batters back. Make it a fair dismissal. There are too many grey areas. When you leave grey areas, it can be really sore on the eyes for the fans, and I find it really irritating and hurtful towards the game.”

The South Africa great also mentioned that Litton calling Sodhi wasn’t sportsmanship because it was a “fair dismissal.”

“My advice would be, take the rule away that you can’t call a batter back. If a bowler wants to run the batter out, take the dismissal off the rule book. If you are caught on the boundary, you are out. These are the rules of the game. You can’t say, ”ah, he is my friend, call him back’. I don’t see this as sportsmanship, I’m sorry. It’s a fair dismissal, it’s out. Walk off the field,” said AB.

What Tamim said after the dismissal

Tamim, who had made a return to Bangladesh ODI squad after being away due to injury, expressed that the decision to recall Sodhi “did not look good.”

“I don’t see anything wrong in it,” Tamim said after the match. “The rule is there. If we get someone out, or one of us gets out in that manner, I don’t think we should react the way people are reacting nowadays.

“I think it is a team decision. We will definitely talk about it after today’s incident. If it is a team decision that we will take wickets in this way, we will. If we don’t want to take it, we will not try it. I don’t think it looks good to bring back a batter after getting him out. Either we take it, or we don’t do it.”

Follow us on WhatsApp