“Put it this way, I’m not on Botham’s Christmas Card list.”
Ewen Chatfield knows what it’s like to feel the wrath of the opposing side after using the controversial ‘Mankad’ method of dismissal.
The debate over the tactic arose again this week after India’s Deepti Sharma used it to seal an ODI series win against England at Lord’s on Sunday.
The New Zealand seamer ran out England’s Derek Randall at the non-striker’s end while bowling in the second cricket test in Christchurch in 1978.
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It was just the third time in 31 years that the method of dismissal – named after the first player to perform it in tests, India’s Vinoo Mankad – had occurred at the highest level of five-day games.
Chatfield, now 72, said this week that it happened as he felt the strain of the visitors pushing for a victory to level the series after suffering a shock first defeat to New Zealand in the opening test in Wellington.
After narrowly failing to make NZ follow-on at the end of the first innings, England sought quick runs for a declaration in their second turn at bat at Lancaster Park on day four.
“We were under a bit of pressure, and I was bowling, and I suppose I was under a bit of pressure too,” Chatfield said as Randall was batting at No.3 in partnership with Geoff Boycott.
The famed opener however was scoring at his trademark unhurried rate, so Randall was trying his utmost to run as many as he could.
“They were turning twos into threes because Randall had a quite a hefty head-start,” Chatfield said, indicating the non-striking batter was leaving his crease before the ball had been bowled.
“I could see out of the corner of my eye that was happening, and Bruce Edgar was fielding at mid-on and I asked him to keep an eye on him and this was what was happening.
“Although I don’t know whether I did warn him directly, he could hear Bruce and I talking – and the character he [Randall] is, he probably didn’t take any notice of it.”
With England 47-1 and Randall on 13 from 16 balls, Chatfield underarmed the bails off when he reached the wicket, with the batter well out of his ground and umpire Fred Goodall gave him out on appeal.
The reaction from the tourists was immediate.
“It wasn’t good,” Chatfield laughed.
“Put it this way, I’m not on Botham’s Christmas Card list.”
England’s star allrounder Ian Botham was the next man in and let the bowler know his thoughts.
It’s been reported he told Chatfield – who was almost killed by a bouncer which struck him on the head on test debut versus England three years earlier – that he’d nearly died on a cricket field once and “who knows what could happen again”.
“I can’t remember that happening – but I wouldn’t be surprised,” Chatfield said.
Daily Express UK’s Pat Gibson wrote: "New Zealand’s reputation for fair play is in the gutter after the meanest act I have seen on a cricket field."
Soon after, Botham was involved in a run-out which ended Boycott’s innings of 26 from 80 balls.
“They’d sent out Botham to get rid of Boycott, ran him out because he was too slow.”
Botham made 30 from 31 balls, England declared with a lead of 279 and then dismissed NZ on the final day for just 105 to win by 174 runs.
It was Chatfield’s fourth test – and his next appearance wasn’t until four years later.
“It was probably a factor in me getting dropped for the next test,” he said.
“It happened quite a bit in that era that if we got beaten, Warren Lees and I would be given the chop and Jock Edwards and Lance Cairns would take our place – so maybe it was going to happen anyway.”
But he was never officially told of any disapproval.
“I don’t even know if the players in our team were happy about it – but it’s one of those things that happen when you’re put under pressure a bit.
“I haven’t done it again and I won’t do it again,” said Chatfield, who only stopped playing grade cricket in Wellington three years ago.
Chatfield wasn’t the first New Zealander bowler to run out a batter at the non-striker’s end when he thought his rival was cheating to steal a run.
Bill Hendley did it twice in consecutive seasons when bowling for Otago in the mid-1860s in their annual fixture against Canterbury.
Hendley, born in England, hardly needed assistance to get wickets – in eight first-class games for the association, the right-arm medium-pacer took 37 wickets at an average of just 8.48, including a stunning 8-28 from 24.2 overs as his best return in 1869.
Four seasons before Mankad hit the headlines, Ray Allen ran out John Smith when bowling for Wellington against Canterbury.
Chatfield wasn’t the last either – New Zealand’s off-spinning allrounder Dipak Patel dismissed Zimbabwe’s Grant Flower in this manner in an ODI in Harare in 1992, after reportedly given the batter several warnings.
Mark Chapman, a member of the Black Caps squad for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup, began his international career playing for Hong Kong and was the victim of an unsporting piece of subterfuge in an Asia Cup T20 qualifier in 2016.
Oman’s Aamer Kaleem went through with his delivery action but didn’t let the ball go; instead turning and underarming it onto the stumps with Chapman out of his ground at the non-striker’s end.
Had Kaleem delivered the ball, Chapman would have still had his bat just in his crease, leading to Hong Kong coach Simon Cook describe the action as cowardly.
“It’s a kind of cowardly way out really … if you’re battling man against man in the middle, and you choose to go down that route to get a wicket and win the game … it’s not really in the spirit of cricket and like I say, it’s a pretty cowardly option.”
*Read Ian Anderson’s backgrounder on the Mankad controversy, How the Mankad got its name – and why it’s unfair on the great Indian allrounder, on Stuff on Saturday.
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