Former Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews lashed out at Shakib Al Hasan and his Bangladesh team after he was controversially timed out during their match in the ICC World Cup 2023 in Delhi on Monday.
Mathews became the first batter in international cricket history to be dismissed without facing a ball as he timed out after not being able to face his first delivery within the stipulated 2 minutes at the time of his arrival at the crease.
Shakib Al Hasan and Bangladesh received a lot of flak from the cricketing fraternity for showing lack of spirit by not withdrawing their appeal.
The dismissal helped Bangladesh get a cheap wicket and eventually they defeated the Lankans by 3 wickets in a fiery contest which went right down to the wire.
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Mathews addressed a press conference after the match where he called out Shakib and his team over their "disgraceful" behaviour.
"It was disgraceful from Shakib Al Hasan and Bangladesh. If they want to play cricket like that, there is something wrong drastically. Just disgraceful. Up to today I had a lot of respect for Shakib, but he lost all. We have video evidence, we will put it out…
"You respect people who respect you. Bangladesh first have to respect cricket and then demand respect, we all are ambassadors for cricket," Mathews said before going on to add that no other team would have done what Bangladesh did.
"It was Bangladesh that's why it happened, I don't think any other team would've done it. I've played for 15 years, I've never seen a team going down to that level," the former Sri Lanka captain said.
Shakib gives his side of the story
Shakib on his part, tried to justify his decision to not withdraw the appeal by saying that he was well within the laws of the game.
"Angelo came to me and asked if I want to withdraw the appeal. I told him, see Angelo. I know it's very unfortunate, but I won't withdraw," the star cricketer said before admitting that the dismissal did contribute in Bangladesh's victory.
"One of our fielders came to me and said if you appeal now he'll be out. Then I appealed and the umpires asked me if I'm serious or whether I am going to take it back. It's in the laws.
"I don't know if it's right or wrong. I was at war and I had to take a decision to make sure my team wins," Shakib said.
Shakib however, did not let the furore over the dismissal affect his own performance as he scored 82 runs and picked up a couple of wickets to help Bangladesh knocked out Sri Lanka from this World Cup.
