'Wars are Going on..': Graeme Swann Unhappy With Shakib Al Hasan's Remark After Angelo Mathews' Dismissal

Former England cricketer Graeme Swann has slammed Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan for his ‘war’ to justify Angelo Mathews’ timed-out dismissal during the World Cup clash between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on Monday.

Mathews became the first international cricketer to be dismissed via timed-out method, and while the events that transpired continued to divide the cricketing fraternity invoking wide-spread ‘spirit of cricket’ debates, Swann was not at all pleased by Shakib’s use of the reference ‘war’ to describe a cricket game.

Speaking to News18, Swann referenced the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine, saying that many innocents have been killed during the conflict, urging Shakib to be more sensitive.

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The former England cricketer also added that he disagreed with the Bangladesh players’ approach for appealing against Mathews, but he also said that if the Sri Lankan cricketer didn’t have his helmet, he could have faced one ball particular as a spinner was bowling during that time.

“Yes we should have spirit of cricket, people should play fairly that should never have happened in my view. It is in the rules, but the rules are there to be absolutely torn out sometimes,” Swann told CNNNews18.

“It was against a spinner, he’s not in danger, just take the helmet, or just talk to the captain, ‘Mate my helmet has just blown up, if the captain says no then you take the helmet and face the first ball,'” he added.

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“I think for Shakib to say ‘I felt like I was at war’, yes you want to win but there are far better ways to put it than you’re at war. You’re not at war, wars are going on where people are being killed in the world at the moment so I’m not happy with that being brought up,” Swann stated further.

The backlash after Mathews’ dismissal also brought back memories of the India vs England Test match in 2011 when MS Dhoni-led Indian team took back their appeal in a great show of sportsmanship after Bell was dismissed on 137.

Swann who played in that Test acknowledged that Dhoni saw the ‘bigger picture’ and thus avoided a lot of ‘bad blood’ between the two teams for the rest of the series.

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“Absolutely, from what I remember, I was completely baffled with what was going on. MS Dhoni came up to address and said ‘No, there’s no appeal, we realized that was just a big blunder misunderstanding’. By the laws of the game, MS Dhoni could have said no no we uphold that, and it would have caused so much bad blood for the rest of the series, but MS Dhoni saw the big picture, and that’s why he is known as such a brilliant leader even though India lost that Test match,” Swann added further.

The 3-wicket defeat against Bangladesh leaves Sri Lanka in eighth place ahead of their final group game against New Zealand.