And you thought this game was inconsequential?

Angelo Mathews shows his faulty helmet as he is timed out against Bangladesh yesterday. Pics/AFP, PTI

Nothing is going right for Sri Lankan cricket. On Monday morning, the entire Sri Lankan Cricket Committee was "timed out" by their Sports Minister in the wake of the poor performance of the national team in the World Cup and by the evening, their senior batter Angelo Mathews was ‘timed out' by the umpire on the appeal made by the Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan at the Kotla when the batter was not ready to face the ball within two minutes of the dismissal of an earlier batter. This has happened for the first time in international cricket and it brought an inconsequential game into the limelight.

But it was not the first time in international cricket that the incoming batter was not been ready to face the ball within the stipulated two-three minutes, but fielding captains have never appealed to an umpire to rule the delayed batter out. Here, like it used to be with the run out at the bowler's end, the spirit of the game or sportsmanship prevented captains from appealing for time out. That delay could have happened due to a spate of wickets, an incoming batter may be limping or may have forgotten a piece of equipment.

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Here too, Mathews's helmet strap was broken and he was waiting for the substitute to get him another one. But by then Shakib, who had got Sadeera Samarawickrama caught off the previous delivery, had already appealed for time out. Umpire Marais Erasmus confirmed the appeal from Shakib and on both occasions Shakib replied "I am serious."

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Mathews did try to convince Erasmus and the batter even walked up to Shakib to explain the delay. But Shakib told him, "I have done my job, now it is up to the umpire." Thereafter, Mathews had no option but to walk off the field without facing a delivery. Mathews may be first to be timed out. But a batter has been out in the past without facing a ball.

There have been incidents of new batter joining in as non-striker and getting run out without facing a delivery i.e. run out without facing a delivery or stumped off a wide ball. Like the run-out at the non-striker's end has been discussed threadbare in recent times, there is going to be prolonged, heated debate and surely ICC will have to revisit Law 40.1: Out Timed out.

Talk

Gautam Gambhir @GautamGambhir: Absolutely pathetic what happened in Delhi today!

Usman Khawaja@Uz_Khawaja: Angelo made his crease then his helmet strap broke. How is that timed out? I'm all for timed out if he doesn't make his crease but this is ridic. No different then a batsman getting to the crease then taking 3 minutes to face up

Dale Steyn@DaleSteyn62: Well, that wasn't cool

Javeria Khan@ImJaveria: Yes rules are rules, but there is a term called "Spirit of Cricket" which applies on such situations. Bangladesh would have done a better thing had it given Angelo Matthews a margin. One should trust in their abilities to win matches.