James Anderson re-opens doors on Mankad controversy, says Indians lacked compassion

Charlie Dean with Indian players in third ODI (PC: Twitter)

It seems like doors have been re-opened on the Deepti Sharma and Charlie Dean saga, after the controversial runout was snoozed off for a while.

Some of the biggest names from the game have expressed their mixed take on the matter already, with English legend James Anderson now jumping on the bandwagon. The ace speedster has severely criticised Harmanpreet Kaur and co., not just for the runout, but also for their supposedly “lack of compassion” towards Dean, who threatened to take the game away from the ‘Women in Blue’ in the dead rubber.

James Anderson slams India Women for their lack of compassion

While several cricket experts have accused Deepti Sharma of lacking spirit of the game, many others have applauded her for abiding by the laws. Moreover, the latter of the two verdicts was even backed by the MCC, who stood by the Indian spinner in regards to the laws of the game.

James Anderson, however, has re-ignited the controversy while speaking on the Tailenders podcast. The legendary cricketer has accused Sharma of having no intention of bowling at the time, and also claimed the entire team was compassionless towards the English batter at the end.

According to him, the Indian players simply shook hands with Dean after the match, and made no attempts of consoling her while she was crying. He said,

“I really didn’t like Charlie Dean in tears at the end, – it was a tense situation and she was dealing with it amazingly and this thing happens – and she would have felt anger. She was in tears, and the handshake from the Indian team at the end – there wasn’t any compassion there at all, they didn’t even look her in the eye.”

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