Former Sri Lanka cricket captain and currently the most capped player in the team Angelo Matthews fears the humiliation suffered at the T20 World Cup will not be easy to put back after they failed to qualify for a place in the eight-team second round called the Super Eight.
Mathews who first featured in two Under-19 World Cups and has being to 10 World Cups in all formats had nothing to hide or nobody to safeguard and said the team’s exit was unbearable.
“It’s shameful and it will take a long time for us to recover from what happened”, Matthews told the media when the team returned on Wednesday morning.
But his statement will mean nothing to his employer Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) who are well entrenched with political cover and changes unlikely to take place in either the team or in administration.
Matthews said there was no room for excuses after the batters failed to adjust to some of the pitch conditions despite having the privilege of acclimatizing two weeks ahead of the start of the World Cup.
“We went to America 15 days ahead and we failed to attune to the conditions.
“We should have adjusted and there can be no excuses”, said Matthews who celebrated his 37th birthday the day the World Cup commenced and is a veteran of 425 international matches that includes 90 T20s.
