Bhanuka Rajapaksa hands over retirement letter to SLC: sources

Sri Lanka batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa has decided to bid adieu to international cricket. As per the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) source he has given the letter of retirement to the cricket administration on Monday, January 03.

According to the source, the batter has stated in the letter that he wouldn’t be able to continue playing with the latest fitness standards introduced by the SLC especially the skinfold levels.

Rajapaksa feels that he will not get the freedom to bring his attacking game to the fore and will not be able to do his power-hitting if he brings down his skinfold levels any further. It is also been reported that the board hasn’t yet accepted the letter of retirement.

In order to determine the fitness and endurance levels of the players, the 2km test was introduced earlier last year. However after a request was made by the Cricket Technical Advisory Committee, the benchmark of the test which was 8.35 minutes earlier was increased to 8.55 minutes. But, as per the recent turn of events, the SLC selectors now want all their players to perform the 2km run within the expected benchmark of 8.10 minutes.

According to the tweaks, the players who run below the benchmark up to 8.35 minutes will be considered for selection. On the other hand, the board will retain a specific percentage from the annual contract fee. This will be continued until the player reaches the expected target. Also, the skin fold level has been lowered to 70 from 85 by the cricket administration.

The attacking left-handed batter was first selected for the 2010 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. He was one of the key batters of the team then. He exuded his flair by finishing as the highest run-getter for the team in the tournament with 253 runs to his account.

He also had a good outing in Australia with the U-19 team in 2009 wherein he scored 154 off 111 balls in a one-dayer and finished the series as the highest run-getter. He has so far featured in five ODIs and 18 T20Is for the country having scored 89 and 320 runs in the formats respectively.

--Agencies