Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews praised the support of former captain Mahela Jayawardene had given him during his tenure as captain. Jayawardene contributes the lion’s share during team meetings as Sri Lanka draw up plans against opponents and Mathews was full of praise for the 37-year-old who quit Test cricket after the second Test against Pakistan at the SSC yesterday.
“We won the match and the series, but it’s a sad day for all of us. For 17 years, Mahela has helped bring Sri Lankan cricket to this state. I can’t do justice to that with words. I’m personally thankful to him because he was captain when I first came into the team, and even when I’ve been captain, he’s given me a lot of support. As a team, we’re thankful to him for creating the current atmosphere within the side. We play very well in that environment. Mahela has been a huge strength to everyone. I’m glad he will be with us for six more months in ODIs,” Mathews told journalists, after Sri Lanka won the series 2-0.
“The amount of work that he’s done over the past 17 years is unbelievable. I just want to thank Mahela for helping me so much up to now. I’m glad that he’ll be there for six more months in the ODI format. We won the Test match and the series, but it was an emotional day – a sad day for all of us and for Sri Lankan cricket.”
Rangana Herath was the star for the Sri Lankans as he was named both Man of the Match and Man of the series. Herath picked up career best figured of 14 wickets at the SSC and his nine wickets in Galle helped him to finish with 24 wickets for the series.
Mathews was asked whether he would recommend a paid holiday to Herath. “Yeah, of course. He’s been unbelievable. He single handedly won us the two games and the series. Even the best batsmen can’t negotiate him. Thankfully, he’s doing the job for us.”
Mathews also was buoyed by the fact that Sri Lanka will move up to number four rank in ICC Test Rankings when it comes out.
“It feels great. As I took over I mentioned that I’m trying my best to get the team to the first three, in Tests and in ODIs. We’ve achieved that in the ODIs and we’ve got to move on again when it comes to Test cricket. We need to be consistent. If you look at the past six or seven games, that we played, it all went down to the wire. It went down to the five days. It went really well, so hopefully we can continue that.”
