One of Sri Lanka’s best middle-order batsmen in her Test cricket history, Thilan Samaraweera, 36, announced his retirement, in disheartened mood, from all forms of international cricket yesterday in Colombo.

He handed over his resignation to Sri Lanka Cricket on Tuesday (5). Yesterday he said, had the West Indies and the South African Test tours were to go ahead as scheduled, he would have still continued playing for Sri Lanka until the tour of Pakistan, to be held later this year.

“Earlier I was hoping to continue playing until the Pakistan series but due to the cancellation of the six Test matches with West Indies and South Africa, I thought I should consider about my retirement after the Bangladesh tour,” Samaraweera said in the media briefing yesterday held in his club, the Singhalese Sports Club’s pavilion.

Samaraweera who had poor Australian tour was dropped from the original 20-member squad for the Bangladesh series but he was later included in the squad to replace Mahela Jayawardene, who fractured his middle finger in a domestic match.

However on Monday he was dropped from the 15-member squad which was announced for the first Test against Bangladesh starting on Friday at Galle.

“Whenever the selectors wanted to change the batting order or to bring a youngster in, I had to go out. That has happened throughout my career. That’s a very unfortunate thing and the same thing happens again and again,” Samaraweera told journalists.

He further said: “I met the selectors this (Wednesday) morning and they said they will go with two senior players for the Bangladesh and Zimbabwe tours but they said that they need my experience for the Pakistan tour. But it is not practical as ten months is a very long period and this is the right time for me to retire.”

Samaweera has had many great moments in his career. Guiding Sri Lanka for the Asian Test championship, the century scored against Pakistan in Karachi in 2004 and the World Cup semi-final in 2011 were some of its highlights. But he rated his debut century which was scored against India very high.

When asked about the regrets, he said: “The only regret I have is the fact that the people will remember only my last shot which I played in Australia. I played a wild shot in Sydney, But I’ve been giving my best to the country all the time.”

Samaraweera also said he regrets Sri Lanka couldn’t win a Test in either India or Australia.

Samaraweera, one of the most dependable middle-order batsmen of Sri Lanka in the recent history, with an average that seconds to only that of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, is remembered for sharing a record-breaking 4th wicket partnership of 437, with the latter, against Pakistan in February 2009. (by Roshen Steelman)

Source: The Island (Sri Lanka)