Former Sri Lanka skippers Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have endorsed paceman Lasith Malinga’s decision of retiring from Test cricket due to a worsening knee condition.
Malinga, who is playing in the Indian Premier League for Mumbai Indians these days, announced his retirement from Test cricket on Friday, April 22, 2011 and vowed to pay complete attention to just One Day International and Twenty20 cricket.
The injury-prone pacer had recently withdrawn his name from Sri Lanka’s upcoming tour to England as well. However, after being questioned by the Sri Lanka Cricket about his participation in the lucrative IPL, Malinga made the sudden move to bid adieu to the longest format of the game.
The fast bowler has been blamed for preferring to play club cricket over country. The slinging action bowler, however, clarified that he announced his retirement from Tests in a bid to prolong his career in the shorter version of the game.
Along with 127 wickets in 84 ODIs at an average of 26.84, the 27-year-old paceman has picked up 101 wickets in 30 Tests since making his debut against Australia in 2004.
Malinga claimed that although he had plans to quit Test cricket, the timing of his retirement made the situation awkward.
The former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara has stated that Malinga’s decision was in team’s interest while Mahela Jayawardene considered that it was the right call from the pacer from a personal point of view.
“While I was captain we tried to manage him as carefully and sensitively as possible during the past couple of years,” Sangakkara said.
“The truth is that Lasith is our best fast bowler in limited-overs cricket right now. If we forced him to play Tests we would be running the risk of losing him completely,” the Lankan wicket-keeper batsman added.
Sangakkara further said that Malinga’s presence in Sri Lanka’s ODI and Twenty20 set-up is a huge blessing. Considering Malinga as a team-man, Sangakkara further rubbished all allegations that the fast bowler quit Test cricket in order to extend his participation in the ongoing IPL.
Ensuring his full support to the fast bowler, Sangakkara made it clear that it is his injury problem which forced him to leave Test cricket.
Meanwhile, Jayawardene described that with a severe knee injury, it is pointless to risk Malinga for five-day cricket.
“If he breaks down then it will be bad for Sri Lanka. Some people have criticised the decision, arguing that he is being selfish. This short-sighted argument is very unfair given that he clearly has a chronic knee problem,” Jayawardene said.
The classy right-hander further explained that if Malinga had kept playing Tests despite injury, it could have put a full stop on his cricketing career altogether.
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