SLC official intervened to rule Angelo Mathews out of Champions Trophy opener

Sri Lanka needed a win against Pakistan in their last group game to qualify for the semi-finals. They had Pakistan 7 down with more than 70 runs to get but Sarfaraz Khan was a man on a mission. The Pakistan captain and no.7 Mohammad Amir joined hands and guided the team to the win and knocked Sri Lanka out of the tournament. Skipper Angelo Mathews must be ruing the missed chances throughout the tournament.

Mathews ruled out of the first match

They were in a good position in the first match against South Africa, where inexperience of the middle order cost them, where they missed their captain Angelo Mathews, who was missing due to injury. Latest reports emerging have stated that the allrounder was fit to play v/s South Africa.

The Island reported that doctors had given Mathews a go-ahead for the game, but a leading SLC official from Colombo had intervened. The Sri Lankan captain was angry with this and told the team management that he wanted to go through the fitness test. The team management ruled him out of the test and Mathews was left fuming.

Asanka Gurusinha, the team manager, denied these allegations. However, Gurusinha had said that the skipper was 70 per cent fit for the South Africa game and he was confident he will be to play in 2 days.

Sri Lanka were off to a good start in the second innings before they lost the plot in the middle overs. They missed the calming influence of their captain and collapsed to lose the match by 96 runs and were found guilty of maintaining slow over-rate and stand-in captain Upul Tharanga was subsequently banned for next 2 games.

The SLC official’s intentions behind allegedly stopping Matthews from playing isn’t clear yet. But it has certainly raised eyebrows because Sri Lanka’s domestic has been badly hit by the match-fixing allegations and many SLC officials are found to be involved in the rackets.