Angelo Mathews’ timed out dismissal in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Delhi on Monday (November 6) has become a major talking point.
After coming to the crease, Mathews was getting ready to face the first ball. However, his helmet strap broke just as he was tightening it around his chin, prompting him to ask for a replacement helmet.
As the 12th man ran with a helmet, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan had already appealed for a timed out and the Sri Lankan all-rounder was asked to walk back to the pavilion by the umpires.
This incident created quite a stir in the cricket fraternity and Bangladesh fast-bowling coach Allan Donald was also among the people who didn’t like Shakib’s act.
"It was disappointing to see. I can understand Shakib taking his chance. His words were 'I was doing everything to win'. You can sense in my voice that I don't like it,” Donald said in an interview with CricBlog.Net.
"I don't like that sort of thing. It was really difficult to watch that unfold - one of Sri Lanka's all-time greats walking off the field without a ball bowled to him being given out for time. That's where I stand on that.
"You talk about the respect and the dignity for each other and for the game, the spirit of the game. I just don't want to see things like that. That's just me. I just don't want to see that sort of thing in our game where, okay, someone was sharp out there and said 'well, you can appeal'. I was like, 'really - this is not going to happen, this cannot be happening, this can't be happening'," he added.
"The most sensible thing would have been to just to say, 'okay, no worries, mate, sort your helmet out quickly; you have time to replace it'," he continued.
The ICC playing conditions pertaining to "timed out" dismissals state that after the fall of a wicket, the incoming batter must be ready to receive the next ball within two minutes.
After the game, Mathews shared screengrabs of match footage on social media, showing the timestamps of Sadeera Samarawickrama’s dismissal and him arriving at the crease to back his claim that five seconds were still remaining before the deadline of two minutes would’ve ended.
Donald was so disappointed by the turn of events that he wanted to go to the field and ask Shakib to withdraw his appeal.
"My immediate reaction when that happened - and this is just [that] my instincts would have taken over - is I almost actually thought of going on that field and saying, 'enough is enough, we don't stand for this; we are not that kind of team who stand for this'. That was my immediate thought.
"Things happened so quickly, but you're talking about authority and I'm not the head coach, I'm not in charge. I just saw Marais Erasmus [the umpire at the bowler's end] say, 'please Angelo, you can now depart the ground'. And, seeing Angelo pick his helmet up and then walking off and throwing it against the advertising boards; it just was… I was surprised."
While some Sri Lankan fielders shook hands with the unbeaten Bangladesh batters after the chase was completed, they did not go towards the staircase leading down from the Bangladesh dressing room to shake hands with the remaining Bangladeshi counterparts.
"Last night I sat in bed and I just thought, 'what just took place there?' For me, the question I asked was: 'what just happened there?' I even sat in the change room and I was dead quiet," Donald said. "We didn't shake hands, and you walk on the field, and I knew what was going to come after Sri Lanka had fielded… it was just going to be a very, very blank reception and that it certainly was.
"There was anger. The only word you can use, really, is anger. At the end of the day then, like I normally do, I'm almost out there on the park first shaking hands and I just knew that these guys were heading for one place and that's the dressing room. There was no eye contact at all, no conversations, nothing. I don't know, a lot of these cricketers today can call me old-fashioned but I just don't think there is any place for it. I just don't think so."
