New Delhi: Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga feels that his international career might be over soon but urged the cricket-lovers in his country to stand behind their struggling national squad.
The 34-year-old took his 300th ODI wicket on Thursday but it was cold comfort in a 168-run thumping at the hands of India. The visitors extended their lead in the current ODI series to 4-0 with a game to go.
Malinga said that the loss of seasoned players rather than weak domestic cricket was to be blamed for Sri Lanka's downfall.
"Our problems are because we lost a generation of players. If that generation was here, we wouldn’t have an inexperienced team like this. We had players like Chamara Silva, Thilina Kandamby, Jehan Mubarak, Malinga Bandara, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kaushal Weeraratne, Tharanga Paranavitana and Malinda Warnapura."
"They played about 10 years of domestic cricket by the time they were 29 or 30, and played internationals for two or three years, and then were out of the international scene. We lost that 10-12 years of experience from them. It’s really hard to get that experience from a fresh-out-of-school cricketer or a club cricketer."
"The loss of that generation is being felt in our cricket. If they had still been here – I don’t know why we lost them – we would have had the ability to field six or seven experienced players in the team," he said referring to his own debut in 2004.
"Now our cricket has declined. We are hoping to go to the World Cup and I hope we’ll be able to take the cricketers who are here now. We should all try to make that happen."
