“Great Game Awareness By Deepti Sharma”: Anjum Chopra

Former Indian women’s cricket team captain Anjum Chopra has come forward in defense of Deepti Sharma who took out Charlie Dean for leaving the crease on the non-pointing end in the third and final ODI at Lord’s when the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side the win won match by 16 runs to wipe the series 3-0. The manner of dismissal called ‘run-out at non-striker’s end’ in cricket has caused a stir on social media, with former England’s Stuart Broad, Sam Billings, James Anderson etc saying it’s not in the spirit of the game .

“I don’t know who these people are and like I said, either we play by the rules or we don’t play by the rules. It’s defined and it’s written in black and white. If a batter has hit the shot and he or she lost the bat in the bargain As a result s/he gets stuck in cover or half way Would you hit again and say no you lost the bat You should have hit it like a six but because the fielder caught the ball we give you another chance to hit as if this is really the spirit of the game so i don’t know what you are talking about i understand at the end of the day sports is about camaraderie , recreation and bondage with fellow players I fully understand but this is not what we are talking about We are talking about the laws of the game We play cricket by the laws of the game Either remove the law that a player is not on this way can be turned off I think it’s a great game awareness belongs to Deepti Sharma for being involved in that overshoot in the ICC Women’s World Cup in New Zealand. So she was involved there and now here. So I think it’s a big game consciousness. So I support my player and I don’t think an unfair advantage should have been given to a batter,” Anjum Chopra told ANI.

This was the farewell match of the experienced Indian pacer Jhulan Goswami, who finished as the highest wicket taker in international women’s cricket. But the topic of conversation became Deepti Sharma’s firing of Charlie Dean.

“I don’t see anyone’s fault for it being within the rules of the game. She appealed. The umpires issued Charlie Dean. So I don’t see any controversy arising. Go upstairs with the umpire to check if the player has bowled or don’t and then create a controversy oh You know you only need to remove one bail from the stumps So I think it’s pretty groundless I see no reason why a controversy should be It’s very much within the laws It could also happen to an Indian player tomorrow. If players of other nationalities can run out of another, if he or she backs up. I’ve seen the match. I’ve seen ball-for-ball. So I don’t know exactly what what happened then, but it’s pretty irrelevant. I don’t see any reason to be mad at Deepti Sharma or take away from the fact that it’s the brilliance of Jhulan Goswami’s last match,” said Anjum Chopra.