Reports: Angelo Mathews considering retirement from international cricket

Sri Lankan cricket has been in the doldrums for the last few months. The newly-announced salary structure by the national cricket board has left many senior players disappointed and they subsequently made themselves unavailable from the national selection. This episode is indeed not turning out great for Sri Lanka cricket as the national team hasn’t done much in the past few years. Hence, the unavailability of prominent players could dent them further.

The latest development says that veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews is thinking about international retirement. Mathews, 34, last played for Sri Lanka in a Test match against Bangladesh in April. He didn’t feature in the limited-overs side due to different reasons and now, the star all-rounder is reportedly planning to bring curtains to his illustrious career.

As per a report in Newswire, Mathews has informed Sri Lanka Cricket that he is considering retirement from international cricket. The veteran is currently discussing the matter and will inform his decision in the upcoming weeks. Notably, Mathews is amongst many senior players who had objected to the new central contract points system over transparency issues.

Angelo Mathews enjoyed a great run in Sri Lanka colours

Hence, it would be interesting to see which way Mathews will go. For the unversed, Mathews is one of the finest all-rounders to have played for the Lankan Lions. The right-handed batsman can anchor the innings in the middle overs and playing big shots isn’t beyond his reach either. If that’s not enough, his right-arm pace bowling has been proven handy at times.

Seeing his brilliance, the national selectors appointed him the captain even when the likes of Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, and Tillakaratne Dilshan were active cricketers. The all-rounder also did well in the leadership role. However, things changed after the retirement of the legendary trio. Sri Lanka lost one series after another and pressure was piling up on Mathews.

He quit captaincy in 2017 but remained an integral part of the national team. So far, he has played 90, Tests, 218 ODIs, and 49 T20Is, scoring 13219 runs and scalping 191 wickets. These numbers might not be changed ever as Mathews could bring curtains to his international career.