Cricket world erupts over controversial act

Melbourne Stars captain Adam Zampa said he was “well within my right” to attempt to Mankad the Renegades’ Tom Rogers during a fiery local derby at the MCG on Tuesday night.

But despite looking determined to dismiss Rogers if the third umpire adjudged the Renegade to be out, in hindsight Zampa revealed he was not sure if he would’ve followed through with the dismissal.

The TV replay showed Zampa’s arm went past the vertical in his bowling action, so Rogers survived. Zampa admitted post-game that he wasn’t aware of the “vertical” aspect of the rule.

On the telecast, Zampa’s coach David Hussey said that if Rogers had been given out, the Stars would’ve asked for the decision to be reversed because it’s not the way Hussey wants to play cricket.

“Tom Rogers the ball before used running out of the crease before I had bowled it to his advantage,” Zampa said.

“I bowled a good ball to Mackenzie Harvey which should’ve been one (run instead of two) if he (Rogers) hadn’t done that.

“I thought he’s definitely done something he shouldn’t have.

“So I thought that ball if he doesn’t want to be on strike then I’ll make it a bit easier for him.

“I think I was well within my right to do it, it’s in the rule book, it’s well within the rules.

“I just got my technique wrong, he was almost halfway down the wicket.

“Because it went upstairs we had time (to consider withdrawing the appeal).

“I’m not sure what decision I would’ve went with once the ruling had been made.

“Even if I got my Mankad technique right and (umpire) Gerard (Abood) said that’s probably going to be out, I don’t know what decision I would’ve come to.

“I’m a very competitive guy so I guess I saw red a little bit when he (Rogers) used that (stealing ground) to his advantage.”

Zampa said if he Mankaded a batsman earlier in the Renegades innings, rather than the third-last ball, he would be happy for it to serve as a warning rather than a dismissal.

“If it gets in that situation again I’m not saying I won’t do it, (but) particularly so late in the (Renegades’) innings with like two balls left, I know even if I Mankad someone and run him out, then they’ve still got three wickets in hand and Mackenzie Harvey is on strike anyway so it doesn’t really make that much difference to the game,” Zampa said.

Rogers, who’s also a bowler, said that he wouldn’t Mankad a batsman, but also conceded he was “confused” by the rule.

“It gets a bit murky doesn’t it? If someone gets halfway down the wicket everyone [sic] is not too happy about it,” he said.

Rogers responded to the incident by taking career-best figures of 5-16, and while he admitted the Mankad attempt fired him up “a little bit”, he told reporters post-game that teammate Sam Harper was exaggerating when he told the broadcast that he was “fuming” about the incident.

Rogers said he was more psyched up about playing in front of 38,564 fans – the second-biggest crowd of the BBL season so far.

“It was just phenomenal … so lucky to play cricket and 40,000 people roll out and watch us, it’s just bloody exciting,” he said.

“If you can’t get up and amped for that there’s something wrong with you.”

Above all, Zampa hoped the incident would help to further build up the rivalry between the two Melbourne teams.

“It always feels like something happens in these games that you can talk about for a little while, this is going to be it now, isn’t it,” he said.

“These competitions are built on rivalry and the Melbourne Renegades versus Melbourne Stars one is one of the most important ones in the competition so if it just sparked a little fire under the derby, then so be it.”

But he didn’t think it compared to the famous clash between the late great Shane Warne and Marlon Samuels 10 years ago.

“It will probably be in the news tomorrow and then everyone will forget about it,” he said.

It was all over social media on Tuesday night with some blasting Zampa, others defending him — and even one taking issue with Hussey for not taking his own player’s side.