RICKY PONTING WARNS ASHWIN AHEAD OF IPL 2020! PLANS TO HAVE A 'HARD CONVERSATION' WITH HIM: DETAILS

As IPL 2020 is all set to begin from September 19 to November 10, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting made a hard hitting statement on 'Mankading' stating that it is not within the spirit of the game. He also said he will have a conversation with spinner R Ashwin who will play for the Delhi-based franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.

At a recent interview, on The Grade Cricketer Podcast, Ponting stressed that he believes Ashwin will take his suggestion positively. He also said none of the Delhi Capitals bowlers will attempt Mankading during IPL 2020. 

"I'll be having a chat with him about [mankad], that's the first thing I'll do. Obviously, he wasn't in our squad last year, he's one of our players that we tried to bring in this year. Look, he's a terrific bowler, and he's done a great job in the IPL for a long period of time now, but I must admit watching that last season, as soon as it happened and he did that, I actually sat our boys down and said 'Look, I know he's done it, there'll be others around the tournament who'll think about doing this well but that's not going to be the way that we play our cricket. We won't be doing that'," Ponting said. 

"So, that's going to be a conversation and that's going to be a hard conversation I will have to have with him, but I'm pretty sure he'll take it on the chin. I think, even him, looking back now, probably he'd say it was within the rules and he's right to do it, but this is not within the spirit of the game, not in the way I want, at least with the Delhi Capitals anyway. There are other ways to stop batsmen from doing something like that," the former cricketer added. 

Further giving his opinion on better ways to stop a batsman, Ponting also said 'having the ugly incident of a Mankad' is not the way. "I think there's ways that you can actually stop batsmen cheating like that. If the bowler was to stop, and the batsman was a foot out of his crease for instance, why don't you just penalise him some runs or something? Then they won't do it again," Ponting stressed.

"You've only got to do that once at the start of a tournament, and then all the players see it, and you can guarantee the players won't be fudging any ground from then on. I chatted to some of the match referees about it during last year's IPL as well. If the umpires make a stance and do something to warn the batsman that they might be cheating, then that's better than having the ugly incident of a mankad," Ponting further shared his opinion.  

Ponting made these statements, because Ashwin had made headlines in IPL 2019 when he Mankaded Jos Buttler at the non-striker's end after the Rajasthan Royals batsman was found outside his crease even before Ashwin delivered.

That moment and act on the field divided the sporting fraternity, where few criticised Ashwin while others backed the off-spinner, saying Mankading is within the rules of the game. Later when Ashwin was asked about his behaviour, he said it's within the rules of the game and he didn't 'know from where the understanding of the Spirit of the Game comes from'.