When Sourav Ganguly was six minutes late, but wasn't 'timed out'

Angelo Mathews has become the infamous first to be ‘timed out’ in international cricket, but it could have been Sourav Ganguly in 2007. 16 years back during a Test match between India and South Africa at Cape Town in 2007, Ganguly was six minutes late to batting crease. On Monday, Mathews took more than two minutes to get ready for batting and it cost him his wicket.

World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table

However, in Cape Town, Graeme Smith stopped Ganguly from becoming the first to be ‘timed out’ as the then South Africa cricketer decided not to appeal against the former Indian cricketer.

Why was Ganguly six minutes late?

In fact, Sachin Tendulkar was expected to come out at No. 4 after opener Wasim Jaffer was dismissed but the ‘Little Master’ had spent some time off the field while fielding and had to wait five more minutes before becoming eligible to bat. Jaffer was dismissed at 10.43 am and Tendulkar could not bat before 10.48 am.

VVS Laxman, who was to come at No 5, was also not ready and was in the shower and that forced Ganguly to pad up as quickly as possible and run onto the field. Still, he was six minutes late.

This whole incident was narrated to Smith by umpires and he decided not to appeal against Ganguly.

Read: Mathews presents evidence against his ‘timed out’ dismissal

On Monday, however, despite Mathews urging Shakib, the Bangladesh captain refused to withdraw his appeal.

Mathews wasn’t ready in time as the strap of his helmet was broken.

After the match, which Sri Lanka lost, Mathews blasted Shakib and termed the incident as “disgraceful”.

“I have two minutes to get to the crease and get myself ready, which I did. And then it was an equipment malfunction. And I don’t know where the common sense went, because it’s obviously disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh if they want to play cricket like that. Obviously (they) stooped down to that level, I think there’s something wrong, drastically. After my helmet broke off, I still had five more seconds to go. And the umpires also have said to our coaches that they didn’t see my helmet breaking. I mean, I was just asking for my helmet,” Mathews said in the post-match press conference.