Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan was unapologetic following his appeal to unpires which led to Angelo Mathews becoming the first batter in international cricket to be timed out.
Mathews wasn’t ready to face his first ball within two minutes of the previous dismissal — as stipulated by the tournament rules — after his helmet strap broke and he called for a replacement helmet.
By the time a teammate ran out with a new helmet, more than three minutes had elapsed. On-field umpires Marais Erasmus and Richard Illingworth told Mathews he was timed out. Shakib also appealed for him to be timed out.
In the press conference after the Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka match, Shakib was asked if he had any regrets, the Bangladesh captain said no.
'Not at all. 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, umpire told me whether you're going to call him back or not, if I said he's out, then you call him back, it doesn't look good. I said I won't call him back. We played under-19 together, World Cup, so I know Angelo for a long, long time, since 2006. Yeah, unfortunate, but within the rules."
(Reporter - Following up on that question, yes, it's out as per the rule but in terms of spirit of cricket, did you ever think of calling him back again?)
Shakib Al Hasan - "Well, then ICC should look into it and change the rules."
(Reporter - As a batter, if you put yourself in Angelo's shoes and if the same thing happened to you, what would you feel?)
"I'll be careful. It doesn't happen to me."