Mathews’ successors named

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Dinesh Chandimal and Upul Tharanga

Dinesh Chandimal has been named skipper of Sri Lanka’s Test team after Angelo Mathews officially announced his retirement at a press briefing held at the Sri Lanka Cricket Headquarters a short while ago.

Meanwhile Upul Tharanga, who led the team in white ball cricket in Mathews’ absence during Sri Lanka’s recent tours to Zimbabwe and South Africa, has been named skipper of the ODI and T20I teams.

Despite Rangana Herath being tipped to take over the Test team as the news of Mathews’ resignation broke, in an unexpected turn of events, President of Sri Lanka Cricket Thilanga Sumathipala announced today that it would be 27-year-old Chandimal who would Captain the Test team.  The rationale behind this being that he is more of a long-term option.

Earlier in his career Chandimal was believed to have been groomed to be Sri Lanka’s next captain and in 2013 he was appointed captain of the Sri Lanka T20 side and vice-captain of the country’s ODI team. During the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 however, he stepped down from the captaincy after injury and bad performance.

Chandimal expressed that he will put his ‘heart and soul’ into getting Sri Lanka up the rankings and playing better cricket.

Tharanga was selected as ODI captain to lead in the tri series in Zimbabwe in November 2016 and again for the South Africa series, as a result of Mathews being injured. Tharanga also stood in for as skipper of the T20I outfit during the 3-T20I tour for Australia.

He was thankful for the opportunity afforded to him, saying “I am thankful to the SLC and chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya for trusting me with the captaincy.” He also went to on to say that he would look to build a more consistent side under his leadership. “I can’t say we haven’t done well during the recent past. We have had many ups and downs. As a team, we have to be consistent going forward. I think what we all want is for Sri Lanka to do well, so I believe everyone involved will work towards that goal.”

Speaking at the press briefing, outgoing skipper Mathews confessed that one of the reasons he had decided to stay on as skipper, despite wanting to step down on previous occasions, was because there did not seem to be any suitable candidates to take up the position. However, he expressed that at the current juncture, in Upul Tharanga and Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka have two very capable leaders.

“In the past there were instances where I wanted to step down, but I didn’t want to let the team down at the time; mainly because there were no replacements as such. My honest opinion is that there asre candidates who can take over the reins and I’m pretty sure they will be more successful and better captains than me”

Mathews who became Sri Lanka’s youngest Test captain in 2013 at the age of 25 led the nation in 34 Tests, winning 13 and losing 15 games. Since captaining his first ODI in 2012, Mathews has led the team in 47 wins and 45 losses in 98 games. In T20 internationals, Mathews has lead Sri Lanka to only 4 wins while being dealt 7 losses.