Mitchell Starc under fire over controversial act in T20 against England

Mitchell Starc has been called out by cricket fans after mentioning Deepti Sharma in a discussion with Jos Buttler during the third T20 between Australia and England.

Starc was bowling in the third T20 in Canberra when he noticed England captain Buttler was leaving his crease early at the non-striker's end.

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The Aussie bowler then warned Buttler as he was walking back to his mark, saying: "Don't go early Jos. I'm not Deepti but I might do it. Doesn’t mean you can leave your crease early.”

Buttler replied: “I don’t think I did.”

Starc was referring to Deepti Sharma - the Indian bowler who sparked widespread debate with a recent 'Mankad' dismissal of Charlie Dean in a women's one-day international.

Sharma dismissed Dean at the non-striker's end before bowling the ball - a dismissal commonly known as a 'Mankad' and highly controversial around the world.

The ICC has recently moved to legitimise the dismissal after years of controversy and confusion over its place in the game, but the response to Sharma's actions proved the 'Mankad' is still highly despised.

Fans took to social media after hearing Starc's comments, blasting the Aussie bowler and defending Sharma's actions as being well within the rules.

Former Indian cricketer Hemang Badan tweeted: “Grow up Starc. That’s really poor from you.

"If you only want to warn the non-striker and not get him out that’s fine and your decision to make but you bringing Deepti into this isn’t what the cricket world expects of you.”

Cricket world still heavily divided over 'Mankad'

Speaking after the match, Aussie captain Aaron Finch said he was unaware of the incident between Starc and Buttler, but suggested he is generally against bowlers performing a 'Mankad'.

“I think if guys get a warning, then it’s fair game after that,” Finch said.

“That would go for most teams, I assume, if you give a batter a warning, because you think that they’re gaining a little bit too much ground before the ball is bowled. But I’m not a big fan, personally.”

Buttler has twice been dismissed in this fashion in the past, first by Sri Lanka’s Sachithra Senanayake in an ODI in 2014 and then by Ravichandran Ashwin in the Indian Premier League five years later.

While the MCC has recently shifted the dismissal from 'unfair play' to simply a run out, Buttler recently said he would withdraw an appeal if one of his bowlers affected a 'Mankad'.

“No one wants to see them in the game because they always create such a talking point when it should be about the battle between bat and ball,” Buttler said.

England seamer Chris Woakes said: “I personally wouldn’t run someone out (like) that but a warning – no issue with that to be honest. Happy with giving guys warnings.”

Last month Aussie all-rounder Ellyse Perry described the dismissal as "the biggest flop of a wicket", but jokingly added: “I think the overall gist is no good, don’t do it, but if you’re going to do it, do it to England."

Perry said: "I don’t like it at all. It just didn’t feel right.

“If someone is very obviously leading off before the ball has been bowled, by a long margin, you’d probably say something to the umpire.

“You’d probably bring that up before a game if you knew someone notoriously did that but, no, besides that, I don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation about just chucking the Mankad in.”

with AAP

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