Sri Lanka all-rounder Angelo Mathews made his feelings clear about the 'timed out' controversy which rocked the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India. In the post-match press conference after the defeat against Bangladesh, which ended the former champions' hopes of progressing to the knockouts, Mathews said that the timed out is "a technicality which needs to be discussed because it's a World Cup game and what happens if this happens in the last over when you have three or four runs to get in the last wicket. I mean, it's just pure common sense." Talking about the incident, the former Sri Lanka captain also lamented Bangladesh players' lack of "spirit of the game". (Video: ICC)
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00:00 Yeah, because I haven't done anything wrong. I have two minutes to get to the crease and
00:10 get myself ready, which I did. And then it was an equipment malfunction. And I don't
00:16 know where the common sense went. Because obviously, it's obviously disgraceful from
00:22 Shakib and Bangladesh if they want to play cricket like that. Obviously, stooped down
00:26 to that level, I think there's something wrong, drastically. Because, you know, if I got late,
00:37 if I got past my two minutes to get to the crease, and in the law says you have to be
00:43 ready within the two minutes and I was there two minutes, 45 or 50 seconds I still had
00:48 after my helmet broke off, I still had five more seconds to go. And the umpires also have
00:58 said to our coaches that they didn't see my helmet breaking. I mean, I was just asking
01:04 for my helmet. So it was just pure common sense. I'm not talking about mancading or
01:12 obstructing the field here. This is just pure common sense. And bringing the game into,
01:17 you know, disrepute. It's absolutely disgraceful. Yeah, you need to respect people who respect
01:23 us. It doesn't mean that, you know, they have to respect the game itself. I mean, we all
01:29 are ambassadors of this beautiful game, including the umpires. So then, if you don't respect
01:35 and if you don't use your common sense, what more can you ask for? Yeah, so I mean, see
01:42 up to today, I had utmost respect to him and Bangladesh team. Obviously, you know, you
01:50 all play to win. And if it's within the rule, it's fine. But the rule clearly says, in my
01:58 incident today, within two minutes, I was there. We have video evidence. We will put
02:03 out a statement later on. We have video evidence, footage, everything was looked. I'm not just
02:09 coming and saying things here. No, I think in terms of mancading and say obstructing
02:15 the field, the rules are quite clear. I mean, because the rule clearly says that if you're
02:23 out of your crease, the bowler can, you know, break the stumps. And so, if you're in line
02:33 of the stumps and if you're obstructing the ball being hit to the stumps, then it clearly
02:39 says you're out. But here, where is the common sense? Here, I think in my 15 years of career,
02:46 I've never seen a team going down to that level because obviously, the umpires also
02:53 admitted that it's, you know, equipment malfunction and they could have gone upstairs and checked
02:59 again. Yeah, I mean, what's the point, you know, not checking at that time and then saying
03:04 it afterwards because I'm not saying if I was, you know, there we could have won the
03:09 match. It's a different story. Okay, but still, you need to have your common sense in terms
03:15 of using technology. And also, it was clearly a malfunction. I mean, it just came off. You
03:23 know, I didn't mean to, you know, pull it and break it. You know, I still had my time
03:29 as well. And I was complete, you know, I was in complete shock. Yeah, in my opinion, yes,
03:35 because if I haven't done anything wrong, whose fault is it? Well, as I said, it's a
03:45 technicality, you know, which needs to be discussed because it's a World Cup game. And
03:53 what happens if this happens in the last over when you have three or four runs to get in
03:59 the last wicket? I mean, it's just pure common sense and just have to, I mean, it was not,
04:07 I wasn't trying to waste time. I wasn't trying to get advantage of anything. It was just
04:15 pure equipment malfunction and it just happened for the very first time in my career. And
04:22 I'm absolutely shocked. I don't know. I'm not going to say that, you know, if I had
04:28 batted today, we would have won the match. I'm not saying that. I mean, I'm just talking
04:34 about that, you know, incident where obviously it was a crucial time of the match and it
04:41 could have gone either way. I mean, we could have got, you know, 54, you know, 60 runs
04:45 more as well. You never know. But it was just pure disgraceful.
04:51 [Music]