Delhi Capitals off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed that he he spoke with coach Ricky Ponting on the controversial subject of mankading ahead of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League. However, Ashwin refused to give any other detail about his chat with Ponting.
The issue came back into the limelights when Ponting had said that he would have a discussion with Ashwin on the controversial manner of getting a batsman out before the IPL starts on September 19 in the UAE.
Mankading had become a major talking point when Ashwin – who was playing for Kings XI Punjab – had run out Jos Butter at the non-striker’s end during the last season of IPL. The 33-year-old was subjected to criticism from all corner for going against the “spirit of the game”.
“Ricky Ponting hasn’t yet reached (Dubai). After he comes, we will sit for a chat with him. He said he wants to have a conversation. We have already talked over the phone. It was a very interesting chat,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin said it’s better to have a face-to-face conversation since the message of the heavily-accented Australians can get lost in translation.
“What happens sometimes is Australians’ messages in English get lost in translation and reach us with a different meaning. Even some of their jokes become news. That’s what it is and next week I will reveal a bit more about my conversation with Ricky.”
Meanwhile, the Indian contingent of Delhi Capitals had reached Dubai on Saturday to take part in the upcoming edition of the IPL.
The DC franchise uploaded the pictures of their players and staff leaving for Dubai from Mumbai on their official social media platforms.
The Indian players and the coaching staff of the Delhi franchise had already assembled in Mumbai earlier this week. And after all of them tested negative for COVID-19, the entire unit left for the UAE.
The 2020 season of the IPL will be played for 53 days across three venues in the UAE — Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai.
The final match will be played on a Tuesday, to make it the first-ever IPL to have its final on a weekday. The matches this season will also start 30 minutes before their original time of 4 PM and 8 PM.
The IPL 2020, which was scheduled to be played from March 29 this year, was earlier postponed to April 15 before it was suspended again due to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.