‘Can’t be a controversy anymore’: Kevin Pietersen passes verdict on Mankad, warns bowlers and leaves fans surprised

With the cricketing world caught by storm due to Deepti Sharma's recent run out of Charlie Dean for backing up at the non-striker's end at Lord's, many former players have begun to share perspective on the Mankad situation and correlate it to the spirit of cricket. Many have supported Deepti's decision to Mankad, and some have even criticised her. So, England legend Kevin Pietersen also joined the bandwagon and had a verdict for it, so that 'it can't be a controversy anymore'. Despite his verdict making sense, many fans didn’t respond to it well. His verdict also included a special warning for bowlers and he asked them not to disrupt the game.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote, "A ‘Mankad’ is now a run out according to the new rule change at the ICC. If it happens, a player is playing by the rules. It’ll take time for us all to accept this, but it can’t be a controversy anymore."

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He wrote in another tweet, "What I do hope, is that bowlers don’t run in looking for a mankad. It’s just going to disrupt the game. Let’s not disrupt cricket atm!"

Reacting to the former cricketer’s verdict, one fan said, "The ball is dead until delivered. Until it goes out of the bowlers hand. So any non striker batsman leave the crease, it’s ok because the ball is not legal until it’s delivered. The rule is wrong and debatable, amend the rule. The ball is only legal when it is delivered".

Another fan said, "Hmm still not comfortable with this, yes batsman should look to not leave crease before the ball is bowled but we are all trained to back up when the bowler releases, what’s to stop a bowler going through their whole action only to not release to try get a sneaky runout?"

Another user stated, "It will likely remain a desperate action of the minority whether "endorsed" by law or not....majority of professionals still seem uncomfortable and unwilling though like Mitchell Starc remind the NS if you feel they are encroaching. This might become "next generation" norm.."

"It's been a legitimate dismissal for 200 years, yet still people whinge about it. It's going to take more than an ICC ruling for some of them to accept that there's nothing wrong with it - they think the "Spirit of Cricket" is whatever they say it is", another fan commented.