Was Angelo Mathews a scapegoat?

COLOMBO (News 1st) Sri Lanka Cricket has announced that the National Selectors decided to appoint Dinesh Chandimal as the ODI captain to lead the team in the upcoming series against England. Accordingly, they have requested Angelo Mathews to relinquish his duties as the National ODI & T20I captain, with immediate effect. Angelo Mathews had then announced his resignation as skipper in an open letter, in which he said that he is relinquishing his duties as Captain as per the request made by the selection committee and the coach. Mathews says it was immediately felt that he was made the scapegoat in the entire saga of Sri Lanka's dismal performances against Bangladesh and Afghanistan in the Asia Cup. He goes on to state that all decisions are taken through a mutual understanding with the Selectors and the Head Coach. The letter states that, though he does not agree with the reasoning that the losses should be accrued single-handed to the Captaincy, he eagerly and wholeheartedly respects the request of the selection committee and the head coach in asking him to step down with immediate effect. He also stated that during his captaincy, series wins recorded against England, a whitewashing of Australia 3-0 and winning the Asia Cup in 2014 were some of the memorable occasions. Mathews also pointed out that despite multiple captains being appointed to Sri Lanka Cricket from July 2017 none of them have been able take on the mantle in a permanenent role. The multiple captains mentioned by Mathews are;

• Upul Tharanga
• Thisara Perera
• Chamara Kapugedara
• Lasith Malinga
• Dinesh Chandimal

The letter says he had no intention of continuing to play as Captain of the National Team. He also stated that Chandika Hathurusinghe met with him immediately after being appointed as Head coach, and requested to reconsider taking up the Captaincy until the World Cup in 2019. Mathews says that though family and close friends discouraged him from taking up the mantle, being confident in Hathurusinghe and his plans to elevate the performances of the Sri Lankan team and in the best interest of the country he agreed to do so until the World Cup. He says though Sri Lanka suffered these heavy defeats in the Asia Cup, especially in the backdrop of a reasonable series against South Africa, he had no intention in quitting and running away from the issues at hand, especially owing with the World Cup being only a dozen games away.

A word from a former captain

Former Test Cricket Captain and present Minister Arjuna Ranatunga stated that he was trained during the time of Duleep Mendis and Roy Dias, who trained Aravinda and Madugalla. "After they retired, we came into captaincy and created players like Sanath and Marvan. When Sanath and Marvan came into captaincy they trained people like Mahela and Sangakkara. But during Sangakkara's time, they did not create new players who can take the mantle forward. They did unnecessary things to Chandimal and Thirimanne. That player was ruined. We saw how even Mathews was treated. They did not allow players to rise. This is the result of that. There are no key batsmen when Mathews captains and when Chandimal is injured" he added.