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          Angelo Mathews 'won't run away' from Sri Lanka captaincy after England defeat

          • Andrew McGlashan, Deputy editor, ESPNcricinfoJul 2, 2016, 06:58 PM
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              Deputy Editor Andrew arrived at ESPNcricinfo via Manchester and Cape Town, after finding the assistant editor at a weak moment as he watched England's batting collapse in the Newlands Test. Andrew began his cricket writing as a freelance covering Lancashire during 2004 when they were relegated in the County Championship. In fact, they were top of the table when he began reporting on them but things went dramatically downhill. He likes to let people know that he is a supporter of county cricket, a fact his colleagues will testify to and bemoan in equal quantities.

          Angelo Mathews has said he will not "run away" from the Sri Lanka captaincy and insisted he wants to help haul the team out of their current trough.

          The 122-run defeat in Cardiff meant Sri Lanka lost the one-day series 3-0 to follow the 2-0 reversal in the Test matches. They now have the lone T20 in Southampton on Tuesday to try and take something tangible from the two-month tour before returning home to face Australia across all three formats.

          Mathews has been Test and ODI captain since 2013 and then also took the T20 role when he replaced Lasith Malinga shortly before the World T20 earlier this year.

          This tour has been a far cry from the 2014 visit to England where Mathews led Sri Lanka to victories in both the Test and ODI series.

          "There will be good times as well as bad. This is a tough time for me as a captain and for the whole unit but you can't run away from it. You have to deal with the issues," he said. "I have a good bunch of players who support me throughout and I'm pretty sure if we keep improving day-by-day we can come out of this hole."

          In the one-day series, Mathews admitted England had outplayed his side in every department and bemoaned the same problems being repeated throughout the trip.

          "For the past two months we've been having the same problems, either batting, bowling or fielding has let us down in every single game," he said. "In the one-dayers we needed a perfect day to win against England. We didn't have that perfect game and we paid the price. Congratulations to the English boys, they put us under a lot of pressure and didn't give us the slightest of chances. They outplayed us in all three departments."

          Sri Lanka were one of England's opponents when they were at a low point as a one-day side, thrashing them by nine wickets in Wellington during the World Cup having beaten them 5-2 in Sri Lanka before that tournament - the series which ended the one-day captaincy of Alastair Cook. The contrast has not been lost on Mathews.

          "A few years back they were in the same situation as us, a rebuilding phase and they have stuck to their plans, they've stuck to their players and now you can see the results," he said. "They've been improving day-by-day and over the last six or eight months they've been playing some fantastic cricket."