Karunaratne’s fitting tribute to retiring Suranga Lakmal

Sri Lanka Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne during practice at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru  

Sri Lanka Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne paid a fitting tribute to retiring fast bowler Suranga Lakmal when he said that in the past 10 years he had played with him he had never seen Lakmal retire from the middle during a match.

“The one good thing about him is that I can trust him without any fear that he will give me 200%. It’s a big loss for Sri Lanka cricket for the forthcoming Tests but personally I am happy for him because he has got a break to play county cricket,” said Karunaratne.

Lakmal is retiring from international cricket at the end of the second Test against India starting today at Bengaluru and will concentrate on playing county cricket with Derbyshire with whom he has signed a two-year contract.

“Right now I don’t see anyone who can fill Suranga’s shoes. Chameera is getting there slowly but I will not get his services for Test matches because he is being managed to play white ball cricket. I don’t think I can get him for Test cricket this year. 

“We have in our line up Vishwa (Fernando), Asitha (Fernando), Lahiru (Kumara) and Kasun (Rajitha). We need to get one of them to fill Suranga’s place. For that we need to play a lot of four-day cricket and gain the experience to get there. I hope Sri Lanka Cricket will see to that,” Karunaratne said.

Lakmal said the time was right for him to retire and he had no regrets about taking the decision.

“I have played for Sri Lanka for the past 13 years and when I look back I can be satisfied that I have done something for Sri Lanka cricket. I have always wanted to win matches for Sri Lanka more than my personal achievements. I know that I have made this decision at the right time. I am 35 and I have allowed another bowler to be groomed in my place,” said Lakmal.

When it was pointed out to Lakmal that he was retiring when he was 30 wickets short of reaching 200 Test wickets, he responded: “I am not so concerned about records that’s why I took this decision to quit. If I wanted to go for that milestone I don’t know how many Tests it will take me to get there. Thereby I will be only preventing another bowler from being groomed.”

Asked what advice he would give a bowler to reach international standards, Lakmal said: “Test cricket is the real cricket. A player must take a liking to it first before branching off into other formats. What I find is some players dislike Test cricket because it is not easy and there is a lot of hard work involved. 

“Test cricket is not easy. I know how much of a sacrifice I had to go through in the 13 years. You can gain a lot of satisfaction from what you achieve from Test cricket. We have to play a lot of red ball cricket if we are to find quality fast bowlers for the future.”

Today’s Test match will be Lakmal’s 70th of which he has captained in five.

(ST)