New Delhi: An extremely pained Angelo Mathews, who became the first International batter to be officially Times Out in the side's league stage match of the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 came hard on Bangladesh and their skipper Shakib Al Hasan saying it was a disgraceful act.
The time out dismissal incident that occurred in the league stage game at the Kotla on Monday, wherein Bangladesh won by three wickets, has ignited a huge debate on morals and ethics in the cricketing circles. It is completely, legal though. However, a defiant Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan stood by his decision.
The incident took place during the 25th over of the Sri Lankan innings when Angelo Mathews was declared ‘timed out’ – a first in international cricket.
The batter argued that his helmet strap had come off as he prepared to face his first ball, leading to the delay, but Bangladesh refused to withdraw the appeal and the umpires deemed that Mathews had taken longer than the allowed two minutes – as per the Cricket World Cup 2023 playing conditions – to be ready.
No conflict in ruling- The fourth official, Adrian Holdstock, has clarified while speaking to the International Cricket Council (ICC) website that Mathews had indeed exceeded the time limit even before the helmet strap came off.
A defiant Shakib Al Hasan, who played a gritty knock of 82, which helped his team emerge triumphant, maintained that he was well within his rights to appeal after being informed of the possibility by a teammate during Angelo Mathews’ helmet mishap.
Shakib: How I went for Time Out appeal- “One of our fielders came to me and said, if you appeal, the law says he's out because he hasn't taken his guard within the time frame,” Shakib said in the post-match press conference.
“So, then I appealed to the umpires, who asked me If I was going to call him back or not. I said I won't call him back," the southpaw added.
Shakib further said that he had played against Angelo Mathews for a long time and that the Sri Lankan all-rounder came up to him to explain what happened.
“I know him very well; he knows me very well. So, he came and asked me whether if I (will) withdraw my appeal or not If I want to, I said, you know, I understand your situation. It was unfortunate, but I don't want to."
“It was in the rules that a batter has to come to the crease within that certain period of time and he wasn't there at that time,” added Shakib, himself a veteran all-rounder.
Mathews stands ground- Mathews disagreed with Shakib statements, and claimed that he was ready before the timer had run out.
“I have two minutes to get to the crease and get myself ready, which I did,” Mathews was quoted as saying by the ICC website.
“And then it was an equipment malfunction. And I don't know where the common sense went, because obviously it's disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh."
“If they want to play cricket like that, I think there's something wrong drastically. I still had five more seconds to go after my helmet broke off," lamented Mathews, who joined the Sri Lankan squad as a replacement player.
'Sri Lanka did not shake hands with Bangladesh'- The Sri Lankan all-rounder maintained that the team refused to shake hands with Bangladesh after the match as they believed the opposition, in refusing to withdraw their appeal, did not respect them and the spirit of the game.
“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," added Matthews.
Mathews went on to add that the dismissal happened at a crucial juncture in the game.
"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," Mathews concluded.
Mathews gets Shakib's wicket- Mathews, as for his consolation, took the scalp of Shakib when he came out to bowl. The Lankan all-rounder was seen pointing at the 'watch' to Shakib who was taking a walk after he was caught by Charith Asalanka, reminding the Bangladesh captain of time to go back to the pavilion.
Meanwhile, several former cricketers have expressed shocked over Shakib's decision of not to withdraw the appeal and took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to went out their displeasure.
Support pours in- Former India player S Badrinath in a cryptic X post said, "If I was #Shakib I would not have appealed as a Captain and I would have broken more than just a helmet if I was #AngeloMathews #SLvsBan (sic)."
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir described the entire episode as pathetic.
"Absolutely pathetic what happened in Delhi today! #AngeloMathews (sic)," Gambhir said on X.
