Gros Islet [St Lucia], Sri Lanka's veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews reflected on the tough 2024 T20 World Cup and issued an apology to Sri Lanka on behalf of his teammates, saying they were "heartbroken" to let the entire country down. Are. ,
The 2014 winners bowed out to South Africa on a tough ground in New York before losing to continental rivals Bangladesh in a low-scoring thriller in Dallas. Their second match against Nepal was washed out due to rain, leaving them out of the Super 8 race with one match remaining.
Their competition has been marked by logistical difficulties. They were one of two teams, along with the Netherlands, that had to play their group games at four different venues, leading spinner Mahesh Theekshana to comment that the selection of fixtures was "very unfair".But Mathews, Sri Lanka's most senior player, played down his importance.
"Yes, I think first of all we have disappointed the entire country and we are sorry because we have disappointed ourselves. We never expected this. I mean, we faced a lot of challenges but did not solve them "There are concerns, but unfortunately we didn't get through to the second round," Matthews said in the pre-match press conference.
Sri Lanka will face the Netherlands in St Lucia on Sunday night in a match which is very disappointing for them.The Netherlands can still qualify for the Super Eights, but they will have to rely on Nepal to win their first match against a full-member Bangladesh team, as well as surpassing Bangladesh in net run rate.
Sri Lanka entered the T20 World Cup on the back of three consecutive T20 series wins since December and Mathews admitted that the poor performance was difficult.
"It's something we regret because the way we played in Bangladesh with Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, I thought we didn't do justice to our abilities in this tournament. When you come to the World Cup, you Can't take it." Any team to take lightly but unfortunately, the way we played against those teams just before the World Cup, and then once we came back here and the way we played, obviously the wickets were quite different but we Didn't do justice to myself," he said.Added.
Mathews, now 37, said he has not taken any hard decisions on his white-ball future. He has been a consistent presence in the Test team in recent years, but was left out of limited overs teams until he was reinstated by the current selection committee.
"I play every game as if it's my last game. Nothing is certain in life. I'm trying to do whatever I can for the team.I don't have any great expectations about the next game or the next series. I have some time to think about all those things and decide. From my side, the selectors' opinion is not needed, I am playing because of my love for the game - whether it is for the national team or my club team,'' Mathews said.
The 2014 winners bowed out to South Africa on a tough ground in New York before losing to continental rivals Bangladesh in a low-scoring thriller in Dallas. Their second match against Nepal was washed out due to rain, leaving them out of the Super 8 race with one match remaining.
Their competition has been marked by logistical difficulties. They were one of two teams, along with the Netherlands, that had to play their group games at four different venues, leading spinner Mahesh Theekshana to comment that the selection of fixtures was "very unfair".But Mathews, Sri Lanka's most senior player, played down his importance.
"Yes, I think first of all we have disappointed the entire country and we are sorry because we have disappointed ourselves. We never expected this. I mean, we faced a lot of challenges but did not solve them "There are concerns, but unfortunately we didn't get through to the second round," Matthews said in the pre-match press conference.
Sri Lanka will face the Netherlands in St Lucia on Sunday night in a match which is very disappointing for them.The Netherlands can still qualify for the Super Eights, but they will have to rely on Nepal to win their first match against a full-member Bangladesh team, as well as surpassing Bangladesh in net run rate.
Sri Lanka entered the T20 World Cup on the back of three consecutive T20 series wins since December and Mathews admitted that the poor performance was difficult.
"It's something we regret because the way we played in Bangladesh with Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, I thought we didn't do justice to our abilities in this tournament. When you come to the World Cup, you Can't take it." Any team to take lightly but unfortunately, the way we played against those teams just before the World Cup, and then once we came back here and the way we played, obviously the wickets were quite different but we Didn't do justice to myself," he said.Added.
Mathews, now 37, said he has not taken any hard decisions on his white-ball future. He has been a consistent presence in the Test team in recent years, but was left out of limited overs teams until he was reinstated by the current selection committee.
"I play every game as if it's my last game. Nothing is certain in life. I'm trying to do whatever I can for the team.I don't have any great expectations about the next game or the next series. I have some time to think about all those things and decide. From my side, the selectors' opinion is not needed, I am playing because of my love for the game - whether it is for the national team or my club team,'' Mathews said.
