"You need to respect people who respect us" - Angelo Mathews defends Sri Lanka's decision to not shake hands with Bangladesh after match

Veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews backed Sri Lanka’s decision to not shake hands with Bangladesh after their controversial 2023 World Cup match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Monday, November 6. Mathews stated that they will respect people who respect them.

A massive controversy erupted during the match after Mathews became the first batter to be dismissed timed out in international cricket in the 25th over of Sri Lanka’s innings. Coming into bat after the fall of Sadeera Samarawickrama’s wicket, the 36-year-old failed to face his first ball within the stipulated time (two minutes) due to a helmet malfunction. Meanwhile, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan appealed for a timed out dismissal and the on-field umpire upheld it.

Sri Lanka went on to lose the game by three wickets and were thus knocked out of the World Cup. The Lankan players refused to shake hands with Bangladesh’s batters after the game, following which some fans and critics reignited the spirit of cricket debate.

Speaking after the volatile clash, Mathews defended Sri Lanka’s move to not shake hands with the opposition. He was quoted as saying by the ICC:

“You need to respect people who respect us. It doesn't mean that they have to respect the game itself. I mean, we all are ambassadors of this beautiful game.”

The 36-year-old went on to admit that his dismissal came at a crucial time in the match, at a point from where the game could have gone either way.

"I wasn't trying to waste time. I wasn't trying to get advantage of anything. It was just pure equipment malfunction. And it just happened for the very first time in my career. And I'm absolutely shocked. I'm not going to say that if I had batted today, we would have won the match. I'm not saying that,” he stated.

“I mean, I'm just talking about that incident where, obviously, it was a crucial time of the match. And we could have gone either way. I mean, we could have got 54, 60 runs more as well,” Mathews opined.

The experienced batter’s dismissal left Sri Lanka in big trouble at 135/5. Charith Asalanka’s 108 lifted them to 279, but Bangladesh chased the target in 41.1 overs with three wickets in hand.

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Shakib Al Hasan defends decision to not withdraw appeal against Mathews

While Mathews slammed Shakib and Bangladesh over his contentious timed out dismissal at a post-match press conference, the Bangladesh skipper defended his decision to not withdraw the appeal against the all-rounder. He stated that what he did was within the rules of the game.

“One of our fielders came to me and said, if you appeal, the law says he's out because he hasn't taken his guard within the time frame. So, then I appealed to the umpires, who asked me If I was going to call him back or not. I said I won't call him back,” Shakib said.

On his chat with Mathews after the latter was given out without facing a ball, the Bangladesh all-rounder revealed:

“I know him very well; he knows me very well. So, he came and asked me whether if I (will) withdraw my appeal or not If I want to, I said, you know, I understand your situation. It was unfortunate, but I don't want to. It was in the rules that a batter has to come to the crease within that certain period of time and he wasn't there at that time.”

Shakib was the Player of the Match for claiming two wickets and scoring 82 off 65 balls as Bangladesh registered their second win of the 2023 World Cup.