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Picture Credit: Twitter/SLC

It is a known fact that Sri Lanka cricket is not going through a good time. There have been all sorts of conflicts and turmoil that are impacting the cricket in the island country and their recent performances, despite a win against India to their credit, do not tell an encouraging story. The introduction of a new grading system has worsened the situation since as per this rule, players are being given contracts based on their fitness, experience and performance in international and domestic cricket.

Several Sri Lankan senior players like Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews had their reservations about the new contract system and conveyed the same, even threatening the board to retire, as claimed in several reports. And later Isuru Udana announced a sudden and shocking retirement from international cricket after the India series. The announcement came as a shock since he is just 33-years-old and clearly had a lot of cricket left in him.

Another Sri Lanka bowler is considering retirement after Udana

This has led to speculations that he was perhaps not happy with the new system. A report carried by Islandcricket.lk now claims that another Sri Lanka bowler is considering retirement and might announce the same ahead of the South Africa series. The report further claims that one of the three players who received a year-long ban by SLC for disciplinary breach in their previous England tour is also planning to retire from international cricket and migrate to the USA. Notably, Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, and Niroshan Dickwella were found guilty of breaching the bio-secure bubble in the England tour and were subsequently penalised.

Some reason to celebrate for Sri Lanka Cricket

All three of these cricketers have been crucial to the national team in recent years and the retirement of any among them could be a huge setback for SLC. However, for now, they have at least got some reason to celebrate as they defeated Team India 2-1 in the T20I series that too in the absence of key players. This will be a huge boost for them prior to the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Their next series is against South Africa home and consists of three ODIs and three T20Is, beginning from September 2. The hosts would look to extend their winning run although winning against the Proteas could be a challenging task.