Galle, Sri Lanka:
Ahead of his final Test match against Bangladesh starting from Tuesday, former Sri Lanka (SL) captain Angelo Mathews reflected on his last match in Galle.
Mathews, on May 23, announced that the first test match against Bangladesh in June will be his last red-ball appearance for his country. Sri Lanka will be playing just four Tests in 2025 – their lowest number of Tests in a calendar year since 2013.
EMOTIONAL SCENES AT GALLE 🥺❤️
– A beautiful farewell from Test Cricket for Angelo Mathews, An Icon Sri Lankan Cricket. pic.twitter.com/DrdazYSC4y
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) June 17, 2025
Angelo Mathews statement:
“I played my 100th Test in Galle, so I thought I’d say goodbye in Galle. But the main reason was because we don’t have any games coming up, at least for now. After this, we’ll be having our next assignment in Test cricket after a year’s time, that is a very long wait,” Angelo Mathews said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Mathews also said he wanted to give the player replacing him in the second Test a chance to play, as opportunities might be less until the following year.
“I thought it’s good to give an opportunity to whoever is going to replace me in the second Test, because he’s not going to get an opportunity till the next year (laughs). And in that year, you don’t know what what’s going to happen. So I thought I’d just play one game and then try and give an opportunity to the other guy who’s replacing me in the second Test.”
Mathews, who made his Test debut against Pakistan in 2009, has been a cornerstone of Sri Lankan cricket for over 15 years, excelling as both an all-rounder and a leader.
Aggregating 8,167 in 118 matches, he is only behind Kumar Sangakkara (12,400) and Mahela Jayawardena (11,814) for most Test runs by a Sri Lankan. He also proved handy with the ball with 33 wickets to his name.
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