Bangladesh could have been the winner showing 'spirit of cricket', Saber Hossain thinks
"It was unfortunate. We won by a little margin against Sri Lanka. Had Mathews scored 20-25 runs, the result could have been different. Maybe there would be fewer discussions if Bangladesh won by a bigger margin. It was okay until Shakib said he was at a war and did whatever he had to do to win. The problem lay in abandoning the spirit of the game to win the match only by following the rules," he further said.
Angelo Mathews became the first-ever batter in international cricket to be 'timed out' against Bangladesh on Monday and it has since divided the game into two parts. Some are saying Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan did the right thing appealing for 'timed out' according to the law, while others have branded the act as 'disgraceful'.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, the former president of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), thinks Shakib abandoned the spirit of cricket talking about 'war' and 'winning at any cost'. According to him, it was okay to talk about applying the rule but Bangladesh had the chance to achieve something more by adhering to the 'spirit of cricket'.
"One thing is what the rule says and the other thing is the spirit of the game. Many people are saying it is splitting the game of cricket. But I don't see anything like that. Sportsmanship is the base on which the rules are made. This is where cricket is different from other sports since no other sports talk about the 'spirit of the game' like cricket," Saber told The Business Standard (TBS).
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"The incident, to me, would have been better if Shakib said he used the law. But he portrayed it as a war and he had to win it at any cost abandoning the spirit of cricket. That's the main problem. Timed out is in the law and Shakib didn't do anything illegal, if he said that way, I don't think people would have any problem regarding this. But when you say it was a war and you have to win it at any cost, it becomes contradictory with the spirit of the game," he added.
Saber Hossain said Shakib could show the spirit of cricket when the umpires asked him whether he would withdraw the appeal and that would have been the best thing to do, according to him.
"If I want to make a win-win situation, Shakib could still show the spirit of cricket when the umpires asked him whether he would stick to his decision even after appealing for the dismissal. We could show sportsmanship there showing that the batter is out according to the rules, but we let him bat again. I guess this would be the best thing to do. Everyone would be careful and the rules would be applied as well. The spirit of the game is powerful here, that is why nobody did this before in 146 years."
"It was unfortunate. We won by a little margin against Sri Lanka. Had Mathews scored 20-25 runs, the result could have been different. Maybe there would be fewer discussions if Bangladesh won by a bigger margin. It was okay until Shakib said he was at a war and did whatever he had to do to win. The problem lay in abandoning the spirit of the game to win the match only by following the rules," he further said.
"Sportsmanship or rules - which one will you base on? I think sportsmanship should be prioritised because cricket is different from other sports in the spirit of the game. The Spirit of the game is unique. We won the match, but at what cost? It would have been a win-win for us had Shakib called Mathews back, it would have been a great achievement for Bangladesh," Saber Hossain concluded.
