T20 World Cup: 'We've let entire nation down', says Matthews after SL's exit

Sri Lanka veteran all-rounder Angelo Matthews said their early exit from the T20 World Cup has let down the entire nation.

 

Sri Lanka suffered two straight defeats against South Africa and Bangladesh in Group D before a washout against Nepal in Florida. The Island nation will take on the Netherlands in their final league-stage match on Monday.

Matthews said the side will play for pride in their last match at the showpiece event.

"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," Mathews said in the pre-match press conference.

"We have just one more game in the tournament, and we'll play for our pride. 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," he added.

The 37-year-old said their dismal performance in the showpiece event didn't do justice to their capabilities after defeating Afghanistan and Bangladesh in the lead up to the tournament.

"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," he said.

Matthews also mentioned the fact that Sri Lanka's matches were scheduled at four different venues and they had to travel the most in this World Cup but he asserted it can't be an excuse for the below-par outing.

"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," he said.