According to some reports, Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews is planning for retirement. Some reports mentioned that Angelo Mathews has informed Sri Lankan Cricket ( SLC) that he is planning retirement from International cricket.
A Sri Lanka cricket source told that Angelo Mathews is in talks with the cricket board for this matter. Reportedly Mathews is discussing his retirement matter with the Sri Lanka cricket. Also, the decision about his future with the national team will be revealed to the general public in the upcoming weeks.
The 34-year-old Mathews was not part of the limited-overs series against Bangladesh. The reason behind his exclusion from the squad is selectors are planning to build a young side for upcoming ICC events. Also all-rounder Angelo was not part of the squad of the England series due to personal reasons. The white ball series contained – 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs.
“We played with three debutants and if we lost this final game everyone would have pointed out their fingers at the selectors. Board always thinks about the youth and our policy is to focus on the 2023 World Cup but not to forget the seniors as well. We wanted to give the youngsters’ match practice and without match practice, they cannot obtain any experience,” Pramodya Wickramasinghe, the Chairman National Cricket Selection Committee told the Daily News
“Somebody had to do it. Without doing so, you can’t think of any future. Our main target is the 2023 World Cup. We could have easily named some senior players and got winning results and finally, we could have got the credit but we wanted to look for the future,” he said.
Angelo Mathews: the consistent performer
Happy Birthday 🎂 to Angelo Mathews, who has 13,219 runs and 191 wickets across all formats and still going strong for Sri Lanka!
What has been his best innings? pic.twitter.com/ZFSvh4JXrp
— Sri Lanka Cricket 🇱🇰 (@OfficialSLC) June 2, 2021
The exclusion of experienced Mathews from ODIs was controversial decision because Angelo has performed well in the recent ODIs. Matthews was the man of the match in the last second Odi match he played against West Indies. He picked as many as four wickets.
Meanwhile, his ODI average throughout the last few years has been sensational. In 2017 his average of 63.66 in 2018 his average was 52.50. Adding to it Angelo Mathews was the best performer for Sri Lanka in the 2019 ICC World Cup. His fitness is also very good.
The 34-year-old Angelo Mathews alongside other Sri Lankan cricketers has raised their voice against the central contract system. The reason behind disagreement between the board and players are is transparency issues in the contract. However, later some players agreed to sign contracts but Sri Lanka cricket informed them they will only provide tour contracts.
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