Need to be patient, quick decisions won’t help, says skipper Mathews

Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews has made no bones about the fact that the team has let the country down with their recent performances which resulted in their ouster from the ICC World T20.

For the record, Sri Lanka has won only against UAE and Afghanistan in their last 10 T20 Internationals failing to beat any Test playing nation.

“I think it has been a disappointing few months for Sri Lankan cricket. We have let down the fans, let down the whole country. We haven’t played good cricket at all,” Mathews said at the post-match media conference late last night after England beat Sri Lanka by 10 runs to progress to the semi-finals and knock the Islanders out of the tournament.

“All we can do is stick to a combination, not try and change the team too much. We should try and pick about 20 players and re-evaluate them, say after 6 months. Give them opportunity to settle down and then try and see what they have come up with, in terms of performances. Then we can take a call as quick decisions won’t solve this matter. We need to be patient,” said Mathews.

He said that missing regular T20 captain Lasith Malinga was a big blow but there is no excuse for such shoddy performance.

“It was big blow losing Lasith Malinga. He has won us so many games and it was a big blow for the whole team. We have got slightly better with each game but it’s not an excuse.