Bangladesh bowling coach Allan Donald was not pleased with Shakib Al Hasan’s appeal against Angelo Mathews as the all-rounder became the first player to be Timed Out in International cricket. Donald said he wanted to go to the middle and ask Hasan to withdraw his appeal.
Mathews found out that his helmet strap was broken when he was about to take strike against Shakib Al Hasan. The Sri Lankan all-rounder asked for a replacement but Hasan appealed to Marais Erasmus for Timed Out. The on-field umpires gave the decision in Bangladesh’s favor despite Mathews explaining his helmet malfunction.
In fact, fourth umpire Adrian Holdstock revealed that Mathews had failed to take strike even before that broken helmet strap became an issue. Furthermore, it has been revealed that umpires had cautioned Mathews about the time limit of two minutes before he asked for a new helmet.
“The most sensible thing would have been to just say, ‘Okay, no worries, mate, sort your helmet out quickly; you have time to replace it’,” the former South African pacer told CricBlog.Net.
Donald added: “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.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan players decided not to shake hands with Bangladesh players as they walked straight into their dressing room after the loss. Angelo Mathews said they did so as the opposition didn’t show them respect.
“Last night I sat in bed and I just thought, ‘What just took place there?’” Donald said. “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 in 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.”
Bangladesh will play their last match of the World Cup 2023 against Australia at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Saturday.
