Dinesh Chandimal named Sri Lanka’s new Test captain

Dinesh Chandimal has been named Sri Lanka’s new Test captain while Upul Tharanga will take charge in the limited-overs formats after Angelo Mathews tendered his resignation.

Mathews ended a tenure spanning more than four years in all forms following an embarrassing one-day series defeat to minnows Zimbabwe on home soil and will now slot back into the playing ranks.

Chandimal was the logical successor in Tests after serving as deputy to Mathews while Tharanga, the most capped ODI player still active for Sri Lanka, was the team’s vice-captain at the recent Champions Trophy.

Chandimal – whose first assignment will be the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, beginning on Friday in Colombo – told a press conference: “I would like to thank Angie, it’s not an easy job as a captain in any team.

“Angie has done a great job in the last four or five years. So as a captain we’ll miss him but we’re looking forward to him playing as a player.

“I’m really honoured and pleasured to captain the Test side. We’ve had lots ups and downs in the last two years but we have really good players with good youngsters and seniors.”

Mathews was appointed Sri Lanka’s Twenty20 captain in October 2012 before taking charge of the Test and ODI teams four months later.

He led Sri Lanka to a famous Test series victory in England in 2014 while they whitewashed Australia 3-0 last year.

But he has presided over a transitional phase with Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan all coming to the end of their careers under Mathews.

Sri Lanka recently failed to get out of the group stages of the Champions Trophy while the 3-2 defeat to Zimbabwe, who secured an ODI series win at a Test-playing nation for the first time since 2001, proved a nadir for Mathews.

The 30-year-old said: “The Sri Lanka team has not fulfilled its true potential during the last several months but I personally believe that is not owing to the lack of skill, effort or lack of commitment of the players.

“However, as the captain I cannot turn a blind eye to the failures of our team during the last several months.

“I am very much concerned that we were unfortunate to lose to Zimbabwe. This, as stated previously, was the lowest point in my cricketing career.

“On this notion and after giving deep consideration I decided to resign as the captain of the national team in all formats.

“There were two things working in my mind: whether this was the right time to step down and whether this is the right time considering the team because the team’s interest supersedes my personal interest.

“Now my honest opinion is that there are candidates who can take over the reins and I’m pretty sure that they will be more successful and better captains than me. I also wanted to give the successor enough time till the World Cup (in 2019) to build up a team.”