The Bangladesh Cricket Board plans to ask for an explanation from Bangladesh bowling coach Allan Donald for criticizing Shakib al Hasan for calling for a timeout against Angelo Mathews during their November 6 match against Sri Lanka at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
The Bangla Tigers scripted history by dismissing the experienced Mathews in a “Timed Out” manner, which once again sparked a wide range of controversy about the spirit of cricket. Even though everything proceeded according to the rules, many felt that it went against the spirit of the game and they chastised Shakib for not withdrawing the appeal.
Mathews tried to explain things to Shakib and the umpires, but Bangladesh refused to withdraw their appeal, therefore the umpires decided to give the Sri Lankan the “unusual” award. Shakib Al Hasan received a lot of negative feedback for what he did and Allan Donald concurred, stating that it was depressing to see such conduct on the cricket field.
During an interview with CricBlog.Net, Allan Donald expressed his disappointment in getting Angelo Mathews dismissed in that manner and believes Shakib Al Hasan and the Bangladeshi team could have handled the issue differently, given it is the fault of the helmet.
“It was disappointing to see. I can understand Shakib taking his chance. His words were ‘I was doing everything to win’. You can sense in my voice that I don’t like it ,”
“I don’t like that sort of thing. It was really difficult to watch that unfold – one of Sri Lanka’s all-time greats walking off the field without a ball bowled to him being given out for time. That’s where I stand on that,”
“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’,” Allan Donald said
Officials from the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) disclosed that they were aware of Allan Donald‘s outburst and insisted that they would look into it as quickly as possible.
“We have seen the news quoting Donald and we are taking that seriously. We will certainly seek an explanation in the coming days,” a BCB official said
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan was right to appeal for the wicket because the game’s rules clearly state that the batter must be ready to face the first ball within three minutes and two minutes (in the World Cup) of the last dismissal but the spirit of the cricket was up for debate following the controversial dismissal of the veteran Sri Lankan all-rounder.
