AUSTRALIA cricket star Adam Zampa was left thoroughly embarrassed after FAILING a Mankad attempt during a Big Bash League game on Tuesday.
Zampa's Melbourne Stars, who won the toss and elected to bowl first, had the Melbourne Renegades on 139-7 with two balls of their 20 overs remaining.
But controversy ensued on the penultimate delivery as 30-year-old spin bowler Zampa took the stumps off at the non-striker's end when batsman Tom Rogers had walked out of his crease.
Melbourne Stars celebrated the wicket, but those jubilant scenes were short-lived.
The umpires were able to watch replays of the incident and determined that Zampa had completed his action without letting go of the ball.
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This is not allowed when attempting a Mankad - which is defined as a run out of the non-striker by the bowler before bowling the ball if the non-striker leaves his crease too early.
And the crowd at the MCG - who were mostly cheering for the Stars - promptly booed the attempt from their own player, Zampa.
The Renegades won the match after reducing the Stars to 108/9 as Rogers took three wickets.
Afterwards, former Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin defended Zampa by insisting he must have warned Rogers before the Mankad attempt.
He said: "I reckon Zampa was dirty from the ball before when Rogers got in and out and got Harvey on strike.
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"I didn’t think we were gonna see it [an attempted Mankad in the BBL] to be honest."
But Aussie legend Brett Lee was less than impressed with Zampa and feels it is time the sport got rid of the Mankad rule.
He said: "If he [Zampa] goes past where he’s meant to let go of the ball there it’s deemed you can’t actually Mankad the batsman.
"I don’t like that rule, I don’t like the Mankad rule whatsoever, I reckon they should take it out of their hands.
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"The best way to do it is to say to the batsman, if you leave your crease, you get docked five runs.
"Take it away from the bowler. I just don’t like seeing that in the game of cricket."