Thilan Samaraweera retires from International Cricket

[Anish.]

Thilan Samaraweera has retired from international cricket after being left out of the Sri Lanka squad for the first Test against Bangladesh in Galle, which starts on March 8. Samaraweera had sent a letter to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Tuesday informing it of his intention and the board has now accepted his decision.

Read more here

 

[War]

He was an interesting player. He was certainly one of many batsmen in the 2000s era who had an exaggerated 50+ average for a large portion of his carrer due to flat decks and poor attacks around.

I recall him scoring a mountain of runs as SSC ground on the road colombo deck. But his two centuries in S Africa 2011 vs Steyn and showed that he could score overseas.

 

[Shahbaz63]

Pre 2008 I guess he was a very Slow test batsman who used to leave more then to score. he was not a very elegant test batsman when he debuted for Lanka scoring a ton against India but after getting dropped he came back in a new avatar playing master stroke too frequently & as the above person said in his last African series he showed that he can play overseas too, he has something 3 Over seas century on his name.

 

[Owzat]

Can't believe he had to apply to retire, unless it is this contract BS that seems to achieve not a lot. People will point to things it appears to do, but there is no cause and effect relationship.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

pretty sure this could have been avoided, and without jayawardena they could have used another experienced head in the team.

he was a frustrating player, he dipped in and out of form managing to veer between being a genuinely very good player and a complete liability. His knock against south africa is genuinely one of the most impressive of that last few years though, so he's always got that.

 

[MUFC1987]

I think it was the right decision to drop him. They have some talented batsmen to come in and he has been struggling for a while.

I think he's retired to take up a County Cricket contract though. I don't think he wanted to be kept around a squad in the future when he appreciates that he's not going to be picked in the playing XI any more. So rather than filling up the numbers in the squad, he's decided that he's better off taking the full County Contract, which is fair enough really.

 

[sifter132]

^Agree with this. I never managed to see the best of Samaraweera when I watched SL play and he's certainly struggled of late. When he's blocking talented young guys like Thirimanne then there isn't a lot of point in keeping him around. Sanga and Mahela should provide the necessary experience.