India head coach Rahul Dravid on Saturday expressed his views on controversial ‘timed out’ dismissal involving Angelo Mathews and the Bangladesh team, saying that there is no real right and wrong and everyone thinks differently about the rules and spirit of cricket.
In a bizarre and rare incident, Veteran Sri Lanka cricketer Mathews on November 6 became the first player to be timed out in international cricket during his team’s ODI World Cup 2023 match against Bangladesh at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
The incident occurred in the 25th over of the innings when the 35-year-old all-rounder walked in to bat after Shakib dismissed Sadeera Samarawickrama, who made a 42-ball 41.
According to the timed-out rule, the batter has to make the pitch within 3 minutes (2 minutes in World Cups) of the dismissal of the previous player and be ready to face the next delivery and Mathews didn’t follow that.
After the end of that game, Mathews and Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan have engaged themselves in a war of words over the timed-out dismissal. While Shakib said that he was at war and he had to take a decision to make sure his team wins, Mathews called it “disgraceful”.
On Saturday, Dravid was asked about the whole Mathews incident and he gave his opinion on the situation.
“As you said, different people react differently. We have our own minds, have our own thoughts. Each one of us will think differently about a particular situation,” the Indian coach said during the pre-match press conference.
“And there is no real right and wrong. You can debate both the situations. You can debate whether we have to stick to the rules as they are or sometimes give a little leeway for a little bit of Spirit of Cricket. And there will be people on both sides of the camp,” he added.
The 50-year-old also mentioned that one can’t complain if someone wants to take the rule of law to the nth degree, referring to Shakib.
“It’s fine to have those differences. And some people might not agree, others will say ‘since the rules have allowed me to do it, that’s the way it is’. I don’t think you can complain if someone wants to take the rule of law to the nth degree, because honestly he is just following the rules,” said Dravid.
“You might not do it yourself, we might not do it, but you can’t blame somebody for following it because you put that rule in place.Whether you choose to do it is completely your decision,” he added.
Hosts India, who have won all eight of their matches so far, will face Netherlands in their last league match of the ongoing World Cup on Sunday in Bengaluru. They will look to go unbeaten into the semis, where they will face New Zealand on November 15.