Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin marked the one-year anniversary of the ‘mankading’ furore during last year’s Indian Premier League with a hilarious message asking people to stay at home as India entered a 21-day lockdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
Ashwin, who has changed his Twitter name to ‘let’s stay indoors’, tweeted a photo of him running out Jos Buttler as a reminder to not wander off.
“Somebody sent me this and told me it’s exactly been one year since this run out happened. As the nation goes into a lockdown, this is a good reminder to my citizens. Don’t wander out. Stay inside, stay safe,” he said in a tweet.
The tweet came the morning after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the entire country would be going into a lockdown for 21 days, asking people not to step out of their houses.
This time last year, the then Kings XI Punjab captain Ashwin was in the centre of a divided cricket world as he controversially ran out Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end during an IPL match.
Buttler became the first victim of a dismissal popularly known as ‘Mankading’ in the history of IPL as Royals lost a thrilling match by 14 runs. As per the laws of the game, the third umpire declared Buttler out but the mode dismissal raised eyebrows and started another debate on the spirit of cricket.
The novel coronavirus has so far claimed 11 Indian lives along with 500 positive cases with global death toll crossing 16,000.
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