Let’s play cricket with class

Rex Clementine”
in Delhi

Within 24 hours, Kusal Mendis gave us an indication what is in store for us during his captaincy. Virat Kohli had just completed his 49th hundred and when an Indian reporter asked him would you like to congratulate him, he jumped at him and asked, ‘why should I congratulate him.’

Then on the match day after his side was beaten by Bangladesh by three wickets he refused to shake hands with the opposition. That simply is not cricket.

Mendis will be Mendis. You can not change him. You can’t expect him to be an Anura Tennakoon or a Marvan Atapattu, two of the finest captains to represent the country. But you expected far more from Angelo Mathews.

When Mathews attended the post-match media briefing, you expected him to admit it was a mistake not to shake hands.

“Yeah, you need to respect people who respect us. So then, if you don’t respect and if you don’t use your common sense, what more can you ask for,” the former captain said.

The point is, Bangladesh has always been a spoilsport. Their captain Shakib-al-Hasan has been a serial offender. Why do you have to stoop to that level. You maintain your standards. You don’t have to do tit for tat.

Then, Sri Lanka has won two World Cups. Sri Lanka has reached four other World Cup finals. What has Bangladesh won? Why do you have to bring yourself down to Bangladesh standards? Not on. Sri Lanka should always be remembered for the class with which they played their cricket. Not for being petty minded.

Gone are the days when Marvan Atapattu recalled Andrew Symonds after the batsman had been given out wrongly in Dambulla in 2004. Gone are the days when Mahela Jayawardene gracefully agreed to come down and play the remaining overs in complete darkness to save the 2007 World Cup final ending in an absolute farce.

The point is you can forgive Kusal Mendis for being impulsive. But what was Manager Mahinda Halangoda doing? He should have told his players nothing doing and shake hands with the opposition.

Mathews was adamant that he had done nothing wrong and faulted the umpires for the mess up and the Bangladesh captain for his unsportsmanlike behaviour.

“I haven’t done anything wrong. I have two minutes to get to the crease and get myself ready, which I did. And then it was an equipment malfunction. And I don’t know where the common sense went, because obviously it’s disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh if they want to play cricket like that.”

“I don’t think any other team would do that except Bangladesh.”

Mathews’ holier than thou attitude is unacceptable. He was captain when Sri Lanka ran out Jos Buttler for backing up too far in 2014. He didn’t withdraw the appeal. He did apologize a few years later. However, you yourself have not adhered to the spirit of the game and then have no business talking about it.

Amidst all the drama, everyone forgot how badly Sri Lanka had played. They were at least 20 runs short with several batters throwing away their wickets. Then, they dropped catches, and their bowling was all over the place.

It was one of worst days watching Sri Lanka play. They were not up to the mark with their performance and were well below par with the way they carried themselves.