ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: Angelo Mathews Slams Shakib al Hasan Over ‘Timed Out’ Dismissal, Calls It ‘Disgraceful’, WATCH

Former Sri Lanka captain and all-rounder Angelo Mathews didn’t mince his words in a charged-up post-match press conference after his side’s three-wicket loss to Bangladesh in match no. 38 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Monday. Mathews became the first player in the history of international cricket to be dismissed ‘timed out’ after Bangladesh skipper Shakib al Hasan successfully appealed against him.

Mathews exacted some form of revenge over Shakib when he dismissed him for 82 but Bangladesh managed to chase down 280 to win with more than 8 overs to spare to post just their second victory in the tournament and remained in hunt for a qualification berth for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

“I have two minutes to get to the crease and get myself ready, which I did. And then it was an equipment malfunction. And I don’t know where the common sense went, because obviously it’s obviously disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh if they want to play cricket like that obviously stooped down to that level I think there's something wrong drastically because – if I got late if I got past my two minutes to get to the crease and in the law says you have to be ready within the two minutes and I was there two minutes 45 or 50 seconds – I still had after my helmet broke off, I still had five more seconds to go. And the umpires also have said to our coaches that they didn't see my helmet breaking. I mean, I was just asking for my helmet,” Mathews said in the post-match press conference in New Delhi on Monday.

“So, it was just pure common sense. I’m not talking about ‘mankading’ or ‘obstructing the field’ here. This is just pure common sense and bringing the game into disrepute. It is absolutely disgraceful,” the former Lankan skipper added.

WATCH Angelo Mathews slam Shakib al Hasan HERE...

It was disgrace full of Shakib al Hasan ,until today I had lot of respect him but he lost all today .said #AngeloMatthews#ShakibAlHasan #BANvSL #INDvsSA #NaseemShah#ThugLife #INDvsNED #Rashmika #RashmikaMandanna #ArijitSingh #BiggBoss7 #SriLankaCricket_ pic.twitter.com/V9bgltou5p

— AKHILESH YADAV (@Aky21605104) November 6, 2023

The Sri Lankan players refused the customary ‘hand shake’ of Bangladesh players after the match. Mathews felt that one has to give ‘respect’ to earn ‘respect’. “You need to respect people who respect us. It doesn't mean that - they have to respect the game itself. I mean, we all are ambassadors of this beautiful game, including the umpires. So then, if you don't respect and if you don't use your common sense, what more can you ask for?” Mathews said.

The veteran Sri Lankan all-rounder felt that the umpires were also to blame for the ‘timed out’ fiasco in the clash and slammed the lack of ‘common sense’.

“Well, as I said, it’s a technicality which needs to be discussed because it’s a World Cup game and what happens if this happens in the last over when you have three or four runs to get in the last wicket. I mean, it’s just pure common sense,” Mathews said.

“I wasn’t trying to waste time. I wasn’t trying to get advantage of anything. It was just pure equipment malfunction. And it just happened for the very first time in my career. And I’m absolutely shocked. I’m not going to say that if I had batted today, we would have won the match. I’m not saying that. I mean, I’m just talking about that incident where, obviously, it was a crucial time of the match. And we could have gone either way. I mean, we could have got 54, 60 runs more as well. You never know. But it was just pure disgraceful,” he added.