Allan Donald: I Almost Thought Of Going Onto The Field And Saying ‘Enough’s Enough, We Don’t Stand For This’

Allan Donald: I almost thought of going onto the field and saying ‘Enough’s enough, we don’t stand for this’

 

The bowling coach for Bangladesh, Allan, stated that it was tough to witness Angelo’s removal after he was “Timed out” in Delhi and that his natural reaction was to enter the field and prevent his captain from pursuing his appeal.

When Mathews’ helmet strap broke during take-a-stand against Bangladesh in the 2023 World Cup match, he became the first batter in the history of international cricket to be “Timed out.” When Shakib appealed to the umpires for a “Timed out,” implying that Mathews was not prepared to face the first ball within the allotted two minutes, which is the time restriction for a new batter to be ready for action following the fall of the last wicket, Mathews promptly called for a replacement.

Shakib refused to back down even when the umpires asked him to since Mathews’ equipment had malfunctioned and he wanted to retract his appeal. The incident overshadowed the outcome, forcing a shocked Mathews to leave without facing the ball. Bangladesh easily defeated India by 280 runs with 53 balls remaining.

As Bangladesh’s bowling coach since last year, Donald voiced his disapproval of the way the dismissal was handled, claiming that the “Timed out” has no place in the game of cricket.

Donald shared his opinions exclusively with CricBlog, saying, “What just happened there? I was completely silent in the dressing room. We shook hands [after the match], except that we didn’t shake hands at all. I anticipated that there would be a very, very blank response following Sri Lanka’s fielding. When that occurred, my first impulse was to run onto the field and declare, “Enough is enough, we will not stand for this,” but I’m sure my instincts would have taken over. We don’t represent that type of team here. That’s what came to mind right away.

“I’m not in charge; I’m not the head coach; things happened so quickly.” I was taken aback when I witnessed Marais Erasmus tell Angelo, “You can now leave the ground,” and I watched him pick up his helmet and hurl it into the billboards. You talk about how important it is to treat each other with dignity and respect, as well as the game and its spirit, and I really don’t want to see anything like that. I alone say that.

“All right, someone out there was astute enough to point out that this cannot be happening and that you could appeal. However, as soon as we noticed it, my gut would have prompted me to go ahead and tell them, “Hey, that’s not going to happen.”

The Sri Lankan team was angry while fielding, and not without reason—such acts have no place in cricket. “There was anger and at the end of the day, like I normally do, I’m out there on the park, shaking hands, and I knew these guys were heading to one place and that’s the dressing room. There was no eye contact at all, no conversations, nothing.” Donald, who played 72 Tests and 164 ODIs for South Africa between 1991 and 2003, said the Sri Lankan team was angry while fielding.

The best course of action would have been to just tell him, “No worries, buddy. Get your helmet sorted out right away.” You have time to change it, and I’ll give you an example with Shoriful Islam, who during a Test match against Ireland wore the wrong shoes. He wore green boots with his whites, which he took a while to take off—that is, over time—and nothing helped. Nothing at all.

I can see Shakib taking his chances, but it disappointed me to see it. He said, “I was doing everything to win,” and you can tell by the tone of my voice that I don’t like that. It was hard to watch that happen.

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