Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara should reconsider his decision to retire from one-day international (ODI) cricket and continue for another year, Sri Lankan Minister of Sports and Tourism Navin Dissanayake said on Wednesday.
Sangakkara bid farewell to the ODI game on March 18, after Sri Lanka’s Cricket World Cup quarter-final defeat by South Africa, saying that he was happy Sri Lanka were in a better place than when he came into the side in 2000.
“At this moment as the sports minister, I humbly request Kumar Sangakkara to render his service to the country for another one-year period,” Dissanayake told reporters after appointing a new interim body to run the sport headed by former Test cricketer Sidath Wettimuny.
Photo: AFP
“I spoke to him when I was in New Zealand. He was very disappointed about what was happening here, but now I think he might change his mind if Sidath talks to him,” Dissanayake added.
Left-hander Sangakkara scored 45 runs against South Africa to take his last World Cup tournament tally to 541, including a record four successive centuries.
The 37-year-old, who will continue playing Test cricket, has accumulated 14,234 ODI runs — second only to India great Sachin Tendulkar — and the greatest number of dismissals by a wicketkeeper.
Sangakkara is playing for English county side Surrey this season.
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