(Image source: X.com)
[Saba Sports News] Legendary South Africa batter AB de Villiers opened up about the recent incident that occurred in the second ODI of the Bangladesh versus New Zealand series in Dhaka last Saturday.
Once again, the debate between the ‘Rules of the Game versus Spirit of the Game’ ignited discussions among netizens and former cricketers.
New Zealand, who batted first in that match after winning the toss, were 224-8 in 45.3 overs. During in his run-up to deliver the fourth ball of the over, Bangladesh bowler Hasan Mahmud removed the bails and ran out New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi, who was at the non-striker’s end, batting at 17.
Sodhi was found well outside the crease and was given out by the third umpire within the rules. However, Bangladesh captain Litton Das decided to call back Sodhi to continue batting.
The 39-year-old De Villiers criticized the decision made by Litton to bring back Sodhi after Bangladesh dismissed him via a run-out. He wants the International Cricket Council (ICC) to introduce a rule where once the batter is declared out, he cannot be called back.
“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,” he added.
“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,” de Villiers stated.
Eventually, Sodhi got out after scoring 35 runs off 39 balls as and New Zealand were bundled at 254 in 49.2 overs. Bangladesh failed to chase down the target and were bowled for 168 runs in 41.1 overs. Sodhi ended up winning the Player of the Match award after delivering his best spell of 10-1-39-6 in ODI cricket.