Cricket Feature: Ben Stokes speaks out on the run-out in series between India and England

In one of his long Twitter threads, Bhogle wrote, "It is a cultural thing. The English thought it was wrong to do so & because they ruled over a large part of the cricket world, they told everyone it was wrong. The colonial domination was so powerful that few questioned it." Stokes responded by noting, "Harsha ... bringing culture into people's opinion over a Mankad?"

In the same thread, Bhogle wrote, "Stop believing that the world must move at their bidding. As in society, where judges implement the law of the land, so too in cricket. But, I remain disturbed by the vitriol directed towards Deepti. She played by the game's laws, and criticism of what she did must stop." Here, Stokes responded by stating, "Harsha .. 2019 WC final was over two years ago. I still, to this day, revive countless messages calling me all sorts from Indian fans. Does this disturb you?

"Is this a cultural thing?? ….absolutely not. I receive messages regarding the overthrows from people all over the world, as people all over the world have commented's on the Mankad dismissal, not just people who are English," Stokes further added on the same post.

When the India women's cricket team defeated England away from home 3-0 in a three-match ODI series, they would have been forgiven for thinking the focus would have been on the fact that they whitewashed the England team in England.

However, the exact opposite has happened. Few, if any, are talking about the result of the series. But almost all and sundry have an opinion on the way the final match of the series ended.

For, when Deepti Sharma chose to run out the non-striker Charlotte Dean to end the match – a move that is well within the rules now – the game became less about the result and more about the way the result came about.

This is because the concept of running out a non-striker – or ''Mankading'', nicknamed so due to Vinoo Mankad doing this in a series in Australia – has always been controversial in cricket.

It is primarily seen as going against the ''Spirit of Cricket''. This makes it hard to justify because the concept of the spirit of cricket is very vaguely defined.

And it is worth noting that the rules previously required bowlers to warn a non-striker before running him out. However, that is no longer the case.

The act of running out the non-striker is now within the rules. While that was always the case, it was previously placed within the rules' rules unfair play'' section. Now, it is classed simply as a run-out. It means that it is a legal ploy.

Except, as mentioned, a good number of English cricketers and experts made the issue about going against the spirit of the rules.

This isn't a new take either, but one that was raised even when Jos Buttler – England'sEngland's white-ball captain and someone who's said he would not let any of his bowlers affect such a dismissal – suffered a similar fate courtesy of R Ashwin in the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Even then, a significant hue and cry were raised about this, with reactions ranging from ''this just isn't cricket to ''Ashwin only did this because he was not getting wickets with the ball''.

Yet there's also the issue that Deepti claims she and the team had warned Dean before effecting the run-out, whereas England skipper Heather Knight slammed this as a lie.

So, a contentious debate over what makes up the game's spirit and a case of ''he said she said'' – or should it be she said she said? – it makes for a perfect storm in a teacup.

Is this an issue that will ever go away? Not in the short term, for sure. But, it is telling that the Marylebone Cricket Club – the custodians of the sport, alongside the ICC – addressed the matter and made no mention of the spirit of the game.

Instead, they said that non-strikers should look to stay within the crease before the ball is bowled – something most in the Indian camps hailed as a victory.

So, the issue might not go away in the short term. But there is hope that maybe one day, this will be treated as just another dismissal and little else.