Arjuna Ranatunga Says SLC Shouldn’t have Allowed Mathews to Resign from Captaincy

Aug 26, 2017 at 3:39 PM

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Arjuna Ranatunga Says SLC Shouldn’t have Allowed Mathews to Resign from Captaincy

Former World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga is of the opinion that the Sri Lanka Cricket Board should have persuaded with Angelo Mathews as the captain of the team across all formats when he decided to step down following his side’s humiliating series loss to Zimbabwe last month.

Mathews returned home from the tour of South Africa earlier in the year due to a hamstring injury and missed the subsequent series against Bangladesh which was drawn one all. He then led the team in the Champions Trophy campaign, where Sri Lanka got eliminated in the group stage despite winning against India.

Then Sri Lanka suffered an embarrassing series defeat to Zimbabwe which prompted Mathews to quit captaincy within 48 hours of the debacle.

“Mathews is the best captain I have seen after Ranjan Madugalle. When he said that he wanted to quit, SLC should have told him to hang in there without throwing the towel in. If I had any say, I would have told him that this is not the time to quit,” Ranatunga was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

Sri Lanka decided to go for split captaincy giving the limited-overs leadership to Upul Tharanga who had led the country in the absence of Mathews earlier, whereas, Dinesh Chandimal was handed over the Test captaincy. While India defeated the hosts by a 3-0 margin in the Test series, they are already ahead by a 2-0 margin in the five-match ODI series.

Captain Upul Tharanga won’t be available for the next couple of matches, as he will serve a two-match suspension due to the slow over-rate and thus Chamara Kapugedera will lead the side in his absence.

“When Sri Lanka whitewashed number one ranked Australia in the Test series last year, there were a lot of people to take credit, but sadly when he lost he was made the scapegoat and all the blame was on him. Mathews was a very positive captain, but due to constant changes and lots of chopping and changing he started becoming negative because he lost the confidence,” said Ranatunga.

Sri Lanka will face India in a do-or-die clash at Pallekele on Sunday while the Men in Blue will be eager to pocket the series with two matches left.

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