- Begins new career as commentator
Former Sri Lanka Captain Angelo Mathews in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Morning Sports in the lead up to the first Test match between Sri Lanka and India, which began at the Galle International Cricket Stadium on Saturday (15), confirmed that he had moved on from international cricket for good.
Mathews, 39, who famously brought the curtain down on his red-ball career in June last year against Bangladesh, stated that every professional player should know when to move on. He added that he was currently enjoying what life had to offer and was ever so grateful to it.
At the time of his official announcement to quit Test cricket to make way for a younger player, the former St. Joseph’s and Colts CC star all-rounder, who is also his country’s third leading run-getter in the five-day format, had kept the door ajar to represent Sri Lanka in white-ball cricket if the need arose.
However, Mathews, who has begun a new journey as a commentator in his post-retirement phase, confirmed that when he had made those comments, he had genuinely felt that he would still be in a position to contribute if his country needed his service.
The former skipper emphasised, however, that he was currently at peace with himself having made the right call one year since, adding that he had no regrets looking back on his 17-year stellar career in both whites and coloured clothing.
Mathews scored a total of 7,332 runs across One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and T20Is for Sri Lanka in 316 white-ball matches, while his long-format record is far more outstanding, piling up 8,214 runs in 119 matches for an average of 44.4 with 16 centuries and 45 half-tons.
Not to be outdone, the versatile all-rounder – who carried his team’s middle-order for years, embellishing it with a double century against Zimbabwe in Harare six years ago and 16 hundreds to boot – stood out with his captaincy record in both Tests and ODIs.
Mathews, who took over from Mahela Jayawardena, becoming Sri Lanka’s youngest Test skipper aged 25 years and 279 days against Bangladesh in Galle in 2013, ultimately won 13, lost 15, and drew six in 34 matches for a win percentage of 38.2.
As Captain, the right-hander also batted better – 2,802 Test runs at an average of 50.94 with six hundreds, which is higher than his non-captain average.
Among the highlights of his captaincy career in whites was Sri Lanka’s 3-0 clean sweep of the Steve Smith-led Australia in 2016, while series triumphs against England in 2014 (away) as well as home series success against Pakistan in the same season and the West Indies the following year stand out.
Mathews also led his country to 49 wins in 106 ODI, losing 51, while one of the highlights of his reign was him steering Sri Lanka to Asia Cup glory in Bangladesh in 2014. Sri Lanka’s 20 ODI wins were also the most by any skipper in the format that year.
Although his overall captaincy stats are not overly impressive in the shortest format, he was deputy to Captain Lasith Malinga when the island nation lifted its sole International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup title in Dhaka 12 years ago.
The victory still stands to this day as Sri Lanka’s only white-ball global silverware success following the heady triumph of Arjuna Ranatunga’s legendary side over Australia at the 1996 Wills World Cup final in Pakistan.