Former India cricketer Badani tells Starc to grow up after pacer makes reference to Deepti Sharma

Mumbai, Oct 16 (IANS) Former India middle-order batter Hemang Badani has castigated Australia pace spearhead Mitchell Starc for his utterances during his team’s third T20I against England on October 14, where the stump mic picked the quick as saying to Jos Buttler, “I am not Deepti (Sharma), but I won’t do it. Doesn’t mean you can leave early.”

Starc appeared to warn England skipper Buttler about being out of his crease, and the chatter was picked up on the stump mic.

‘Mankading’ recently hogged the headlines after last month’s controversial dismissal of England’s Charlie Dean by India spinner Deepti Sharma at the non-striker’s end during the third and final women’s ODI at Lord’s.

In the 44th over of England’s ODI innings, Deepti came up to bowl to No. 11 Freya Davies. Charlie, at the non-striker’s end, attempted to go early and steal a few yards by wandering out of non-striker’s end. On seeing that, Deepti turned around to run her out in her delivery stride, which meant a 16-run win for India and a 3-0 series sweep.

Deepti’s run-out of Charlie immediately attracted boos from the crowd at Lord’s and divided the cricketing world yet again on the run-out from non-striker’s end rule, which is valid as per the laws of the game.

Starc made a reference to Deepti in the fifth over of the third T20I against England when he was bowling to Dawid Malan. The pace bowler spotted Buttler leaving his crease at the non-striker’s end, while he was about to bowl the delivery.

Starc took an immediate dig at Deepti while warning Buttler. “I am not Deepti, but I won’t do it. Doesn’t mean you can leave early,” Starc told Buttler.

Badani, who played four Tests and 40 ODIs for India, took to twitter to tell Starc to not single out Deepti.

“Grow up Starc. That’s really poor from you. What Deepti did was well within the rules of the game. 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,” wrote Badani, while also tweeting the video of Starc’s utterances.

The Deepti Sharma incident has prompted MCC to clarify the rules around such a dismissal, changing it from “unfair play” to “run out” in the game’s laws.

–IANS

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