By Callistus Davy
Sri Lanka will see the end of what became the last of the Test cricket heavyweights when veteran Angelo Matthews plays his final match in the traditional format of the game and retires after the first Test against Bangladesh starting on June 17 in Galle.
Interestingly Matthews will bid farewell to Test cricket two weeks after celebrating his 38th birthday at the very ground on which he made his debut that was gainst Pakistan in 2009.
His last Test will mark his 119th match in a career that so far had brought him 8167 runs with 16 hundreds that put him third on the all time list of Sri Lanka’s Test batting artistes behind Kumar Sangakkara (12,400) and Mahela Jayawardena (11,814).
But Matthews undoubtedly quits a Sri Lanka Test cricket arena that is devoid of high quality batters ever since the advent of slam-bang T20 cricket.
Until someone with his temperament and stature comes along, Matthews will take his place as the last of the hardcore specialists in the intellectual format of the game in nearly half a century.
What Matthews will cherish most will be an innings of 160 at Headingly that changed fortunes and paved the way for Sri Lanka to beat England for the first time in a Test series with him as captain in 2014.
Bangladesh will tour Sri Lanka to play in two Tests, three ODIs and three T20 Internationals.
