The Bangladesh-Sri Lanka ICC World Cup 2023 match being played in Delhi on November 6 saw a huge controversy happening as Shakib Al Hasan’s appeal to umpires resulted in Angelo Mathews being given timed out for not taking strike in assigned time.
Angelo Mathews became the first batter in international cricket history to be timed out. Mathews was declared out before even facing a delivery because as the next batter, he was not ready to take a strike within two minutes, as required by International Cricket Council rules.
This all happened in the 25th over after Mathews had walked into bat after Sadeera Samarawickrama’s wicket. Mathews leisured his way onto the batting end and as he was prepping to take strike, the strap of his helmet broke.
Instead of facing a delivery, Mathews asked for a new helmet, and in this Shakib Al Hasan discussed the delay with the umpire and Bangladesh appealed for the time out. Mathews explained his reason to the umpires and even to Shakib, but the Bangladeshi captain refused to take the appeal back.
The pleas fell on deaf ears and a livid Mathews walked off the field, showing the broken strap to his dugout, and threw his helmet in disgust.
It was the first instance of a batter timed out and it had the Sri Lankan dressing room shocked.
Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis, who was commentating on Star Sports, slammed the Bangladeshi team for appealing and called this an act against the spirit of the game.
"It’s against the spirit of the game, that’s what I feel about this. It's such a big moment in this game. Shakib Al Hasan must have appealed because the umpire couldn't have decided unless you have appealed.
There shouldn't have been an appeal there. Because he was on the field and if there was something wrong with his helmet, he should be allowed to fix it. 2-3 extra minutes wouldn't have made any difference. That's not good scenes, I must say that,” Waqar was heard saying on Star Sports.
According to ICC World Cup 2023 playing conditions, the time limit for the batter is just two minutes.
“After the fall of a wicket or the retirement of a batter, the incoming batter must, unless Time has been called, be ready to receive the ball or for the other batter to be ready to receive the next ball within 2 minutes of the dismissal or retirement. If this requirement is not met, the incoming batter will be out, Timed out," the CWC 2023 playing conditions state as per ICC.
