Sports minister urges Sanga to rethink retirement
Sri Lanka sports minister Navin Dissanayake has urged batting great Kumar Sangakkara to reconsider his plans to retire from the Test-match format later this year.
The 37 year-old Sangakkara, who retired from ODI cricket after the recent World Cup, has said previously that he will quit Test cricket in August after playing in "a series or two".
Dissanayake will try an persuade the left-handed batsman to play on for at least another year now that the country's cricket administration, with whom Sangakkara has had lots of disputes in the past, will be changed.
The minister said in Colombo: "As sports minister, I humbly appeal to Kumar to reconsider (retirement) and play for the country for at least one more year. I spoke with him (Sangakkara) in New Zealand during the World Cup.
"He was very disappointed and unhappy (with the cricket administration) and now that there is a change, I think there is a possibility that he will change his mind."
Sangakkara, who is currently the top-ranked batsman in Test cricket and also boasts 12 203 runs in the format, has already signed up to play for English county side Surrey in the 2015 and 2016 seasons and that deal could complicate a rethink of his international future.
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