We have let the entire nation down – Mathews

Rex Clementine in St. Lucia

Sri Lanka’s former captain Angelo Mathews apologized for letting the fans down in the ICC T-20 World Cup. Sri Lanka were knocked out from the first round of the 20 nation tournament after losing back-to-back games to South Africa and Bangladesh and any outside chance of the team going through to the second round vanished after their game against Nepal was washed out without a ball being bowled in Miami.

The wickets have been not conducive for batting in US in the first round of the competition and Sri Lanka got their act wrong when they aimed higher scores on a two paced wicket and paid the price by not putting enough runs on the board. Into the bargain, they also suffered the humiliation of getting bowled out for Sri Lanka’s lowest total ever in T-20 cricket against the Proteas in New York.

“We have let the entire nation down. We are sorry. We have let ourselves down. We never expected this,” Mathews told journalists.

This year, Sri Lanka seemed to have turned things around in white ball cricket, particularly in T20s as they completed series wins over Bangladesh and Afghanistan. While both those teams have had a far better campaign, Sri Lanka have been well below par.

“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t make it to the second round. We can’t take any team lightly. Nepal almost beat South Africa the other night. Unfortunate our game against Nepal got washed out. We will play for our pride in our last group game. We haven’t done justice to ourselves especially the way we played in the first two games. We are hurting so much within ourselves.”

Sri Lanka’s scheduling has been demanding. The former champions and Netherlands are the only two teams that have played their four first round games in four different venues. India had the best travel plan. They played their first three games in New York and only moved out to Miami for the last game. Even India’s warm-up game was played in New York.

England, meanwhile have been chilling in the West Indies. They played two games in Barbados and two games in Antigua. Australia meanwhile have been having a summer holiday in West Indies. Played two games in Barbados and one each in Antigua and St. Lucia. The big three are the privileged ones.

The scheduling, however, is not the reason why Sri Lanka crashed out. They’ve played poor cricket. While the batters have copped most of the blame, the bowling attack that has won the team many games in recent months was a letdown sending down too many wides and full tosses.

Changes are expected to take place in the white ball side lead up to the next series against India. Sri Lanka this year will host New Zealand and West Indies as well in whiter ball series while travelling to New Zealand later in the year.