How low can a sportsman stoop, ask Shakib Al Hassan, captain of Bangladesh. He got Angelo Matthews out as a timeout for trying to fix a defective helmet. I can understand that the stakes are high in a World Cup but there is something in my book called sportsmanship, chivalry or gentleman’s agreement. Those are the things that made this game. To forget it and find legal loopholes is pretty disgusting.

I know people will argue that this is within the rules of the game, but that shows why Bangladesh has stooped so low this edition. Its leader does not know how to win the game on their own merits. They are reliant on rules, bylaws hidden deep in the edicts of the game. No one has been dismissed time out to date, not because no one got delayed, but because captains could not get themselves to deploy this rule to get a wicket. It is almost the lowest of the categories, even below Mankad rule where a runner not on strike oversteps and a bowler stops in his action and gets the runner out. Even there, when Kapil Dev famously got out Peter Kirsten in the 1990s, he gave 2 warnings before getting Kirsten out. Here, it came as a total shock to Matthews.

Two things happened, one is that Angelo appealed desperately to Shakib and the umpires and if Shakib had wanted to, he could have reversed his appeal. But no, he did not. What a shame. What a wrong example for the character of an entire nation of Bangladesh. How cheap.

Sorry Shakib. Cricket deserved better than you. Champions Trophy? You ain’t no champion.

How low can a sportsman stoop, ask Shakib Al Hassan, captain of Bangladesh. He got Angelo Matthews out as a timeout for trying to fix a defective helmet. I can understand that the stakes are high in a World Cup but there is something in my book called sportsmanship, chivalry or gentleman’s agreement. Those are the things that made this game. To forget it and find legal loopholes is pretty disgusting.

I know people will argue that this is within the rules of the game, but that shows why Bangladesh has stooped so low this edition. Its leader does not know how to win the game on their own merits. They are reliant on rules, bylaws hidden deep in the edicts of the game. No one has been dismissed time out to date, not because no one got delayed, but because captains could not get themselves to deploy this rule to get a wicket. It is almost the lowest of the categories, even below Mankad rule where a runner not on strike oversteps and a bowler stops in his action and gets the runner out. Even there, when Kapil Dev famously got out Peter Kirsten in the 1990s, he gave 2 warnings before getting Kirsten out. Here, it came as a total shock to Matthews.

Two things happened, one is that Angelo appealed desperately to Shakib and the umpires and if Shakib had wanted to, he could have reversed his appeal. But no, he did not. What a shame. What a wrong example for the character of an entire nation of Bangladesh. How cheap.

Sorry Shakib. Cricket deserved better than you. Champions Trophy? You ain’t no champion.