‘We need to prepare someone for the next World Cup’ - Dasun Shanaka reflects on quitting Sri Lanka captaincy

In a major development for Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), it was recently announced that 32-year-old Dasun Shanaka will no longer be the skipper of the national team. Kusal Mendis and Wanindu Hasaranga have replaced Shanaka as ODI and T20I skipper, whereas Dimuth Karunaratne is leading the side in the longest format.

Talking of quitting captaincy, Dasun Shanaka came forward and highlighted the importance of how Sri Lanka needs to prepare one of the youngsters as a skipper for the next World Cup. Moreover, the former skipper also said that he will always be around to offer some pearls of wisdom as and when needed by the young captain.

"These youngsters are playing well, and it's a good time to, you know, leave, and I am always there if they need support. I can give my advice, and they will listen as well, so I think we need to prepare someone for the next World Cup, and I personally think that was the best time,” Shanaka told Cricbuzz. 

“I was never meant to be a captain, right? I was never prepared, and somehow I got the captaincy, and I was happy to do that. No one knew, and even I didn't expect to be a captain,” he added.

No one was interested with Sri Lankan cricket at that time: Shanaka

Furthermore, Dasun Shanaka also talked about how he got around to captaining the national team when he was chosen to be in charge. He revealed that no one was interested in Sri Lankan cricket at the time, as the side was losing to every team, and that his motive was to build the team from the ground up.

“See, no one was interested with Sri Lankan cricket at that time. We were losing to every team. So my motive was to you know build a team with these players, perform for the team and stick as one unit. And we wanted to attract the crowd and the community in Sri Lanka for cricket so up to a certain extent we managed to do that, right?” Shanaka concluded.