Jayawardene To Step Down As Sri Lanka Captain

Jayawardene To Step Down As Sri Lanka Captain

Mahela Jayawardene will call time on his Sri Lankan captaincy following the tour of Australia

©REUTERS / Action Images

Mahela Jayawardene has confirmed his intention to stand down as Sri Lanka captain following his country's tour of Australia, which begins with the opening Test in Hobart tonight (14th December).

Jayawardene is currently in his second spell as captain after he replaced Tillakaratne Dilshan and vice-captain Angelo Mathews is the early favourite to replace him in all three formats.

Mathews currently leads the Twenty20 side and Jayawardene has identified the all-rounder as capable enough to succeed him.

Prior to the Hobart Test, which bet365 make Australia 4/7 to win, Jayawardene had led the side in 35 Tests, 124 ODIs and 19 Twenty20s and was at the helm as Sri Lanka reached the finals of the 2007 World Cup, the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20 on home soil.

His first spell as captain lasted from 2006 to 2009 before Kumar Sangakkara and then Dilshan took over until 2011, when Jayawardene returned although he relinquished the Twenty20 captaincy to Mathews following the ICC WT20 final in Colombo.

One of Sri Lanka's most accomplished, distinguished and versatile cricketers, he has scored 10,640 Test runs in 135 matches and scored a Sri Lankan record of 374 against South Africa in 2006.

Sri Lanka play three Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20s during their tour of Australia from 14th December to 28th January.

© Cricket World 2012