T20 World Cup 2024: Angelo Mathews apologises after Sri Lanka’s early exit

Sri Lanka’s all-rounder Angelo Mathews offered an apology following the team’s early exit from the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 co-hosted by United States of America (USA) and West Indies.

In a media talk ahead of Sri Lanka’s final game against Netherlands on Sunday, he reflected on the team’s campaign in the marquee event and discussed the unpredictable nature of the shorter format.

“I think first of all we’ve let the entire nation down and we are really sorry because we’ve let ourselves down,” said Matthews. “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.”

“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 especially in this tournament, we have seen teams beating bigger teams. As I always say you can’t take any team lightly,” he added.

Meanwhile, Matthews expressed hope that his team will close out on a high note and will look to edge Netherlands in their final game in the T20 World Cup 2024.

“It’s very important. I think we can’t take any given team lightly. We saw Nepal 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 play for pride,” he said.

Sri Lanka lost their matches against South Africa in New York and Bangladesh in Dallas while their fixture against Nepal washed out in Florida at the T20 World Cup 2024.

They were officially eliminated in the group-stage after Bangladesh beat Netherlands in St Vincent on June 13.

Sri Lanka’s early exit means it is now a decade since they reached the semi-finals of a T20 World Cup.