Jayawardene may quit after Cup

Feb 20, 2011 |

Tags:

Colombo: Sri Lanka vice-captain Mahela Jayawardene said on Sunday he may quit international cricket after the World Cup. "This will be my fourth, and quite possibly, last World Cup, depending on form, fitness and the plans of the selectors in 2015," Jayawardene told the Sunday Times newspaper.

Jayawardene, 33, a stylish right-hand batsman, captained the side that reached the final of the 2007 World Cup when they lost to Australia, shattering their hopes of emulating the 1996 title-winning team.

"In 2007, we played really well and came agnoisingly close to repeating the heroics of our 1996 team. We've lost some superstars, but gained a really talented group of cricketers," he said, referring to 1996 stars like Sanath Jayasuriya, Chaminda Vaas, who have been left out of the current team. However, record bowler Muttiah Muralitharan remains the sole survivor of the 1996 dream team and will also be playing his last World Cup. Muralitharan announced his retirement from international cricket last July.

With a combined Test and one-day runs tally in excess of 18,000, Jayawardene told www.cricinfo.com on Saturday that his fitness levels will decide his future international career. "I definitely don't want to drag myself through international cricket. I want to play as long as I am enjoying and contributing to the team and have the hunger," he said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/58625" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-8e6fe9fb6b353d83d58dddab543d348f" value="form-8e6fe9fb6b353d83d58dddab543d348f" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80703372" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>