But manager of the Laws Fraser Stewart clarified on Wednesday: "We don't think it was in the spirit of the game.
we believe the pause was too long between the time Ashwin reached the crease and the moment it was reasonable to expect the ball would be delivered.
But the way the law is worded, it says that there is nothing wrong with this. If they don't think it's in the spirit of the game, then change the law (again!) to something that reflects the spirit you require.
If the MCC worded the law differently they could specify that the runout must be attempted before the expected point of release. Thus, waiting for a batsman to leave the crease as Ashwin did, would result in a dead ball.
I hope the MCC are having a good hard look at this, and come up with something better, because until they do, they can expect to see more of it.
As I have said previously, simply calling a short run if the batsman leaves his crease early would remove the incentive for a bowler to behave as Ashwin said whilst ensuring the batsman gains no advantage.
That would be dumping the batsman's responsibility onto the umpire. If the batsman stays in his crease, that also removes the bowler's incentive to Mankad.