Bipin Dani
Decision to play Angelo Mathews (and lead the Colombo Stars team) in a match against Galle Gladiators on Sunday night was taken at the “last moment”, according to one of the franchise man-agement sources.
Original plan was to make his first appearance in the second edition of the ongoing Lanka Premier League (LPL) on December 14.
“It was a novel idea to play him and open the innings. It was also decided that he would score most of his runs by big shots and not run for sin-gles”, the source, speaking exclusively over the telephone from Colombo, said on Monday morning.
The plan succeeded. Mathews’ 73 runs off 57 balls had 11 boundaries (8 fours and three sixes). It was the adjudicator’s decision to award the Player of the Match award to Dinesh Chandimal and not Mathews.
“Our medical team, headed by Dr. Asella Rat-nayake ensured Accelerated Post Player Rehabilita-tion instead of traditional treatment, in which the player can get recovery only after 4-6 weeks, whereas Mathews could play within two weeks after sustaining the injury”.
Mathews was given PRP injection before the match, it is also learnt. The Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injection accelerates the healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints.
