Thilan Samaraweera, the 36-year-old Sri Lankan middle-order batsman, has announced his retirement from all international cricket with immediate effect. The announcement was made on Wednesday (March 6) evening after a meeting with Sanath Jayasuriya, the chairman of the Sri Lankan selection committee, earlier in the day.
According to the batsman, his decision to retire had been fuelled by the decision of the selectors to drop him from the opening Test against Bangladesh, starting from Friday, adding that the selectors had told him that they might need him for the Pakistan tour later this year.
Stating that there was no point in waiting for the Pakistan tour, Samaraweera said that he respected the selectors' decision to go with young players for the Bangladesh tour, adding that he decided that it was the right time for him to retire.
Samaraweera has played 81 Tests, and scored 5462 runs at 48.76, with 14 hundreds. He was primarily an offspinner at the beginning of his domestic career, but transformed himself into a secure, if dour, middle-order batsman, in order to break into the Sri Lanka side in the time of Muttiah Muralitharan. Samaraweera, who had played 53 one-day internationals, scoring 862 runs at 27.80 with two hundreds, will, however, play for Worcestershire in English county cricket this year, the report added.
According to the batsman, his decision to retire had been fuelled by the decision of the selectors to drop him from the opening Test against Bangladesh, starting from Friday, adding that the selectors had told him that they might need him for the Pakistan tour later this year.
Stating that there was no point in waiting for the Pakistan tour, Samaraweera said that he respected the selectors' decision to go with young players for the Bangladesh tour, adding that he decided that it was the right time for him to retire.
Samaraweera has played 81 Tests, and scored 5462 runs at 48.76, with 14 hundreds. He was primarily an offspinner at the beginning of his domestic career, but transformed himself into a secure, if dour, middle-order batsman, in order to break into the Sri Lanka side in the time of Muttiah Muralitharan. Samaraweera, who had played 53 one-day internationals, scoring 862 runs at 27.80 with two hundreds, will, however, play for Worcestershire in English county cricket this year, the report added.
