CricBlog has gained exclusive audio of Allan Donald sharing his thoughts on the Angelo Mathews timed out dismissal
Bangladesh bowling coach Allan Donald has shared his thoughts on the Angelo Mathews timed out dismissal, which dominated headlines around the cricketing world during and after Bangladesh’s victory over Sri Lanka at Delhi on November 7.
Mathews, who walked in to bat with Sri Lanka four down in the 25th over, was all but ready to face his first delivery before his helmet strap broke. After calling for a new helmet, Bangladesh appealed for a timed out dismissal, with captain Shakib Al Hasan choosing to uphold the appeal twice when prompted by the umpires.
In the end, Mathews was given out, sparking widespread reaction. CricBlog has gained exclusive access to the reaction of Donald, who was seen talking to Mathews just after the Sri Lankan was dismissed.
Below is the transcript of the interview.
Allan Donald interview: “I wanted to go out there and say ‘enough is enough'”
“I think it [the timed out dismissal] really overshadowed a clinical performance by Bangladesh. I’m sort of a bit still shocked about it to be honest. It’s just my values that I have as a person and as a cricketer.
I certainly have never, ever in my entire life since I was playing cricket at age group, club cricket, provincial cricket, international cricket… never, ever, ever have seen anything like that.
Last night I sat in bed and I just thought ‘what just took place there?’ For me, the question I asked was ‘what just happened there?’ I even sat in the changeroom and I was dead quiet. We didn’t shake hands [with Sri Lanka], and you walk on the field, and I knew what was going to come after Sri Lanka had fielded… it was just going to be a very, very blank reception and that it certainly was.”
Donald’s immediate reaction…
“My immediate reaction when that happened – and this is just my instincts would have taken over – is I almost actually thought of going on that field and saying ‘enough is enough, we don’t stand for this. We are not that kind of team who stand for this.’
That was my immediate thought. Things happen so quickly, but you’re talking about authority and I’m not the head coach, I’m not in charge. I just saw Marais Erasmus say ‘please, Angelo you can now depart the ground.’ And, seeing Angelo pick his helmet up and then walking off and throwing it against the advertising boards; it just was…. I was surprised.”
“I just don’t want to see things like that…”
“You talk about the respect and the dignity for each other and for the game. The spirit of the game. I just don’t want to see things like that. That’s just me. I just don’t want to see that sort of thing in our game where, OK someone was sharp out there and said ‘well, you can appeal.’ I was like ‘really? This is not going to happen. This cannot be happening. This can’t be happening!’
But we saw it. I don’t know, mate, my instincts would have immediately told me get out there and say ‘hey, that’s just not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen.'”
Overshadowed a great Bangladesh win…
“It really overshadowed a great win. It absolutely; not really, it absolutely overshadowed everything because there was a lot of niggle out there; there was a huge amount of niggle when Sri Lanka started bowling.
There was anger. The only word you can use, really, is anger. At the end of the day, then like I normally do, I’m almost out there on the park first shaking hands and I just knew that these guys were heading for one place and that’s the dressing room. There was no eye contact at all, no conversations, nothing.
I don’t know, a lot of these cricketers today can call me old fashioned but I just don’t think there is any place for it. I just don’t think so.”
Allan Donald recalls Shoriful Islam replacing his boots in a Test match vs Ireland…
“And you talk about mankad now. If you’re going to mankad, it’s a rule, and we’re talking about two rules here that’s actually in the game. The most sensible thing would have been to just to say ‘OK, no worries mate, sort your helmet out quickly. You have time to replace it.’
I take an incident that happened to Shoriful Islam where he came out in the wrong shoes against Ireland in a Test match. He had green boots on with whites, and it took him time to take those boots off; well over time, well over. Talking about exactly the same incident and nothing was said. Nothing. Not a thing. Not a word.”
On running out the non-striker…
“We’re talking about mankading people, and for me, if you’re going to mankad someone, it’s a rule, it’s out there… You need to warn the batsman if you’re going to mankad him. “Don’t do that, don’t steal ground”… that’s sort of thing.
It [the timed out] 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 been given out for time.
That’s where I stand on that.”
