- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
VETERAN Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga on Tuesday (14) announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
In a tweet, the 38-year-old wrote, “Hanging up my #T20 shoes and #retiring from all forms of cricket! Thankful to all those who supported me in my journey, and looking forward to sharing my experience with young cricketers in the years to come.”
He also shared a video that showed a montage of some of his special moments on the field and a message thanking all the teams he played for his colleagues. He titled the video, “While my shoes will rest my love for the game will never rest”.
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Malinga, who is nicknamed ‘Slinga Malinga’ for his slinging bowling delivery action, made his debut for Sri Lanka in a Test match against Australia in Darwin in July 2004.
He went on to play 30 Tests, 226 one-day internationals and 84 Twenty20 internationals, taking a total of 546 international wickets – the most number of which came in the 50-over format (338). In the T20Is, he is the highest wicket-taker with 107 scalps and is one of the only two bowlers to have more than 100 scalps in the format. In one-day internationals, he is Sri Lanka’s third-highest wicket-taker after Muttiah Muralidharan (523) and Chaminda Vaas (399). Malinga also scored a couple of half centuries in international cricket – one in Test and another in one-day internationals.
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Malinga, who was known for bowling deadly yorkers, was member of four Sri Lankan teams that made World Cup finals (2007 and 2011 editions of the 50-over format and 2009 and 2014 T20 format) and could be part of a crown-lifting side only once (2014). He was the vice-captain of that Sri Lankan team that beat India in the final.
Malinga had announced retirement from Test cricket in 2011 and also quit one-day cricket a few years ago. He continued to play in the shortest format and had plans to play in the T20 World Cup which was scheduled in Australia last year but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He also announced retirement from franchise cricket in January this year.
Malinga, who also led the Sri Lanka team briefly, has been a regular competitor in the Indian Premier League. As a key member of the Mumbai Indians, the tournament’s most successful team, Malinga made 122 appearances between 2009 and 2019 and took 170 wickets to top the table of wicket-takers.
