Sri Lanka captain Angelo steps down
Angelo Mathews has stepped down as Sri Lanka’s captain, local media reported yesterday, a day after the 30-year-old described the one-day series loss to Zimbabwe as one of the lowest points in his career.
Sikandar Raza’s stellar all-round display guided Zimbabwe to their first one-day international series win over hosts Sri Lanka with a nervous three-wicket victory in the fifth and final match at Hambantota on Monday.
Mathews had said he was contemplating his future as captain and cricket website ESPNcricinfo reported that the all-rounder had informed the Sri Lanka selectors of his decision to step down in all three formats of the international game.
Zimbabwe, ranked 11th in the world, had never beaten Sri Lanka before this series and their triumph was all the sweeter after losing previous encounters with Scotland and Afghanistan.
“It’s one of the lowest points in my career, and a hard one to swallow,” Mathews said after the 3-2 series defeat. “Everything went against us, from the toss to misreading the wicket. But there are no excuses. At the end of the day we were not good enough to beat them. They played better cricket.”
Sri Lanka’s form in the 50-over format has been dismal since the 2015 World Cup and they have suffered series defeats against England, South Africa and Australia. They also drew against Bangladesh at home and were knocked out of this year’s Champions Trophy at the group stage.” Tsotsobe admitted one charge of contriving to fix a match and nine separate charges of failing to co-operate properly with various investigations.
“I was, at the time, in a very vulnerable financial state and this dilemma too easily persuaded me to participate in spot fixing,” he said in a statement.
“There are no words to describe the regret I have in relation to my actions and I hope that the cricket world could consider my apology and understand my deepest feeling of remorse.”
Gulam Bodi, Jean Symes, Pumi Matshikwe, Ethy Mbhalati, Thami Tsolekile and Alviro Petersen were previously banned for between two and 20 years for their part in the scandal, although CSA has long held that no matches were actually fixed.