In reference to Shakib Al Hasan’s petition for a timed-out dismissal against Angelo Mathews during their World Cup match in Delhi on Monday, Allan Donald, the coach of Bangladesh’s fast-bowling team, has stated that he doesn’t “like that sort of thing”. To Mathews’ dismay, the appeal was upheld. Shakib later claimed that he took certain actions “to make sure my team wins,” but Mathews referred to this as “absolutely disgraceful.”
Soon after the Bangladeshi squad returned to their Delhi hotel, Donald spoke with CricBlog.Net and stated, “It was disappointing to see.” I understand Shakib’s decision to take a risk. “I was doing everything to win,” he said. I don’t like it, and you can tell by the tone of my voice.
“That kind of thing is not my taste. Watching one of Sri Lanka’s all-time greats walk off the field without having been given a ball bowled to him or out for time was really difficult. That’s my position on the matter.
You speak of the dignity and respect that should be shown to one another as well as to the game and its spirit. Simply put, I don’t want to witness such things. I alone say that. Simply put, I don’t want to see situations like that in our game where someone was astute and suggested that they could file an appeal. “This is not going to happen, it cannot be happening, it can’t be happening,” I thought to myself.
Mathews’ issue was that, although having stepped out to bat at the fall of Sadeera Samarawickrama’s wicket in the allotted time, he was not prepared to enter the field because, while pulling his helmet into position, he snapped the strap. “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’,” said Donald.
Donald claimed that he was on the verge of sprinting onto the pitch to urge Shakib to revoke his appeal when he witnessed the events taking place.
“When it occurred, my first impulse was to practically step onto the field and declare, ‘this is enough, we don’t stand for this; we are not the sort of team that stand for this.’ This is just [that] my instincts would have taken over. That’s what came to mind right away.
“Things moved so fast, yet you’re discussing authority, and I’m not in control or the head coach. I just witnessed Marais Erasmus, the bowler’s end umpire, say, “Please, Angelo, you may now leave the field.” Furthermore, I was taken aback to saw Angelo pick up his helmet before strutting off and tossing it against the billboards.”
The animosity persisted till the conclusion of the match. The Bangladeshi team and the Sri Lankan team did not exchange handshakes. Following the conclusion of the chase, a number of Sri Lankan fielders shook hands with Bangladeshi batters who were still on the field, but they did not proceed to the staircase that led from the Bangladeshi dressing room to exchange handshakes with the other Bangladeshi players.
“As I lay in bed last night, I couldn’t help but wonder, ‘What just happened there?'” For me, I wanted to know, “What just happened there?” I was so calm that I even sat in the changing room,” Donald remarked. “You walk on the field, and we don’t shake hands, and I knew what would happen once Sri Lanka had fielded… It was going to be a completely blank reception, and that’s exactly what happened.
“Anger was present. Really, the only word you have is fury. As I usually do at the end of the day, I was almost out there shaking hands in the park when I suddenly realized that these people were going somewhere, and that somewhere was the dressing room. Nothing at all happened in the way of discussion or eye contact. I don’t know, I guess a lot of these modern cricketers can call me outdated, but I don’t see the need for it. I simply don’t believe that.
