Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka player) pre-match Press Conference – 15th June 2024

[Reporter:]

It’s been a tough campaign for you guys. What do you think didn’t go right during this World Cup?

[Angelo Mathews:]

Yeah, I think first of all we’ve let the entire nation down and we are really sorry because we’ve let ourselves down. We never expected this. I mean, we came across a lot of challenges but those are not something to sort of worry about, but it’s unfortunate that we didn’t make the second round.

[Reporter:]

And how important is it that you finish the campaign on a winning note with tomorrow’s game?

[Angelo Mathews:]

Yeah, it’s very important. I think we can’t take any given team lightly. We saw Nepal almost beat South Africa yesterday. It’s unfortunate that our Nepal game was washed out. But it is what it is. We have just one more game in the tournament, and we’ll pray for our prides. And we haven’t done justice to ourselves, especially the way we played in the first two games. So, it’s very unfortunate, we are heartbroken and we are hurting so much within ourselves. But it’s another day tomorrow, and then we have to come up against the Netherlands. And the Netherlands are a very, very dangerous team. So, we hope to play well and beat them.

[Reporter:]

Is that a kind of format where any unfancy team create an upset over one of the strong teams and in that context would you say a team like Afghanistan could go on to make a big impact in the tournament?

[Angelo Mathews:]

Absolutely, I mean as I said this format is such where you can’t take any team lightly. I mean they come up with, they’ve got nothing to lose and you can’t you can’t take any team lightly. I mean we’ve seen that especially over the last few years also specially in this tournament, we have seen teams beating bigger teams. As I always say you can’t take any team lightly, Afghanistan – they have played some extremely good cricket over the last few years and they are a very balanced unit very experienced unit, so if I’m any other team playing against Afghanistan, I wouldn’t take them lightly

[Reporter:]

This year you did beat Afghanistan and Bangladesh in bilateral series quite convincingly as well. In that sense is there a sense of disappointment that you couldn’t make it to the Super 8’s and they are there – and overall that there’s nothing much bad in the sights, just that the team failed to rise to the occasion in the World Cup fixtures?

[Angelo Mathews:]

Absolutely, that’s something that we regret because the way we played Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh in Bangladesh, I thought we didn’t do justice for our capabilities in this tournament I mean as you say when you come into a World Cup, you can’t take any team lightly but unfortunately the way we played against those teams just before the World Cup and then once we came back here and the way we played obviously the wickets were quite different but we didn’t do justice to ourselves.

[Reporter:]

Angelo, currently you are the most senior player of Sri Lanka. How did the Sri Lankan team fail in the World Cup? What do you think about that?

[Angelo Mathews:]

I feel very bad about it, hopes of the team and hopes of the Sri Lanka also has been destroyed by us. So we are so sorry about it and I apologise for that, as we failed to do what we came here to do as a team. I think those two matches were not successful as the batsmen were not successful, the fielders and bowlers did a great job. They did well on both matches and both were very competitive. But unfortunately, we couldn’t win. It’s really hard to come forward in a tournament like this if we lose even one match. It was really hard for us after losing first two matches. And the Nepal match was also unfortunately abandoned by the rain. So, we have left only one match now. We hope to play that well and win.

[Reporter:]

Now when we go to social media or when we are talking to people, the Sri Lankan fans are very frustrated. Do you have any message for them?

[Angelo Mathews:]

Certainly, they gave us a great support, no matter where we play. Even it’s in Sri Lanka or even here, there were a lot supporting us as anyway is possible for them. And I feel very sorry as we couldn’t do anything for them. I want to apologise for that. Actually no one is coming to lose a match. We always try to win the match. So, we couldn’t do that in this tournament.

[Reporter:]

Angelo, most people are concerned about the white ball career of Angelo Mathews ?

[Angelo Mathews:]

It’s like this, I play every match thinking it’s my last match. Because everything in uncertain, even our life is. So, I try my best to do well in every match for my team. I have no high hopes about playing the next match or a next tournament. So, there is some more time, so there will some things to be concerned about, but until now I have not planned anything from my side. We just need the selectors opinion in the future, before my opinion. So, as I mentioned, I play this game, as I love the sport. Even if it’s the National team or a club team, I play with that love and the bond. As I mentioned earlier, I always think this is my last game.

[Reporter:]

How are the frustration does the team get as we had to finish the tournament like this?

[Angelo Mathews:]

We are very frustrated as I mentioned earlier a few times. I think in my career, we have never travelled this much for a world cup. It’s not an excuse, but it is about the reality. I think that only Sri Lanka and the Dutch team played the four matches of this tournament in four different locations. As I said before it’s not an excuse, but in my career, this is the most travelled world cup in history. But as I said before, we were not able to achieve our hope as a team or as a country. I’m very sorry about it.

[Reporter:]

So, in the tomorrow’s game, will the structure be different? Will there be a chance for the players who hasn’t played for the world cup tournament yet?

[Angelo Matthews:]

It’s actually something that I can’t answer, it’s a decision taken from selectors and the captain of the team. So, I can’t answer that. Whatever the player structure plays, we need to win this game. We have to win that. So, we, as players are targeting to win the game somehow.

[Reporter:]

Angelo, you as an experienced player, our fast bowlers Matheesha and Nuwan thushara did a great job even we are now out of the tournament. How do you see their skills?

[Angelo Matthews:]

I think all the bowlers did very well in the last two matches, we saw Matheesha played well in IPL as well. Nuwan Thushara also did well in both this and IPL. They manged to get wickets for a very little score. I think with the experience from IPL and they used what learnt here a lot. So, moving forward, it’s a really good thing for Sri Lanka. I think all bowlers did a great job. Unfortunately, that was only the batsmen were failed