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| March 19, 2003 | Wednesday | Muharram 15, 1424 |
De Silva bids farewell
PORT ELIZABETH, March 18: A disappointed Aravinda de Silva announced his retirement from international cricket on Tuesday, moments after Sri Lanka were knocked out of the World Cup semifinal by Australia.
“I was hoping it wasn’t the last one but unfortunately it’s an emotional day for me,” he said.
The 37-year-old right-hander played 93 Tests and 308 one-dayers and took part in five World Cups.
He was the Man-of-the-Match with a century against Australia in the 1996 World Cup final when Sri Lanka lifted the trophy.
“We will miss Aravinda,” Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jayasuriya said. “He is a great cricketer and I think he has done so much for Sri Lanka cricket. It is very difficult to replace people like Aravinda.”
De Silva was run out for 11 in his last innings on Tuesday.
“It’s pretty sad but after doing the hard work we really didn’t apply ourselves when we batted,” de Silva added.
“I think we ought to be blamed, I feel we should have gone on and made 212 which was a very good total to chase.”
De Silva made his debut against England at Lord’s in August 1984, playing against the likes of Ian Botham and David Gower. Team mate Muttiah Muralitharan would have been 12 at the time.
He made 6,361 Test runs at an average of 42.97. He made 9,284 one-day runs, the third highest individual tally in one-day history behind Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin.
De Silva, who also had successful stints with Kent and Auckland, announced his test retirement in October.
“It’s been a long career and I have been away from home for far too long, so I think it’s high time I spent a little bit of time at home with my family and concentrated on whatever the second phase of my life brings.”
Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore, speaking before Tuesday’s match, said: “Aravinda has been a terrific player in the Sri Lanka team for a long, long time.”—Reuters
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