Just on the third day of the Asia Cup 2018, the tournament witnessed a major unexpected turnaround. Five-time champs Sri Lanka got knocked out of the tournament and disappointed their fans from all over the world. Placed in Group B, Sri Lanka lose against Bangladesh by 136 runs and then Afghanistan by 91 runs. This obviously did not go down well with the Sri Lankan board and captain Angelo Mathews got sacked from captaincy. He will no longer lead the team in ODIs and T20I. Little did the Sri Lankan board know that Angelo Mathews would hit back.

"The national selectors on Sunday decided to appoint Dinesh Chandimal as the ODI captain to lead the team in the upcoming England series. Accordingly, they have requested Angelo Mathews to relinquish his duties as the National ODI & T20I captain, with immediate effect," read the release disseminated by the Sri Lankan board. Post this release, Angelo Mathews wrote a letter to the board and wrote that he felt betrayed if the blame is only put on him alone. Afghanistan beat Sri Lanka. 

“I’m willing to take part of the blame but at the same time, feel betrayed and let down if the blame is solely put on me. As you know all decisions are taken tough a mutual understanding with Selectors and the Head Coach. And though I do not agree with the reasoning that the losses should be carried single-handedly to the Captaincy, I however eagerly and wholeheartedly respect the request of the selection committee and the head coach asking me to step down and do so with immediate effect,” read the letter.

Angelo said that he did not intend to run away or quit especially because the World Cup 2019 is just a dozen of games away and he too was quite shocked with the dismal performance of the team. “I wish to put it on record that though Sri Lanka had suffered these heavy defeats in the Asia Cup, which is shocking to say the least, especially in the backdrop where we had a reasonable series against South Africa, I had no intention of quitting and running away from the issues at hand especially owing to the World Cup being a dozen games away,” read the letter on a concluding note.

Sri Lanka has played 47 ODIs and has lost 30 matches. Mathews started leading the team in 2012 and remained the skipper until 2017. Change of fortunes is what the Sri Lankan board expects with Chandimal taking over as a skipper.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 24, 2018 12:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).