Saturday 27 June 2015 19:12, UK
Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara has announced he will retire from the game during the home series against India in August.
The 37-year-old said he will play two of the three Tests against MS Dhoni’s side.
He said: "I wanted to retire after the World Cup, but was requested by the selectors to stay on. I agreed to play four more Tests. I will honour that agreement. I gave my word, so will stand by that. I don't want to prolong my career for records. This is the time to go."
Sangakkara, who is playing for Sri Lanka in the second Test of their series against Pakistan in Colombo, will miss the third Test against Misbah ul-Haq’s side.
He averages an impressive 58.43 in Tests and has scored over 12,000 runs since making his debut in 2000. Sangakkara has scored 38 hundreds and 52 half-centuries in the long form of the game.
The wicket-keeper retired from ODI cricket after the World Cup in March where he scored four centuries in a row.
He no longer operates behind the stumps in five-day cricket, but took 179 Test catches with 20 stumpings.
Sangakkara also captained his country between 2009 and 2011, losing just three of his 15 Tests in charge.
Speculation about his retirement had been circulating for some time but he is expected to continue in domestic cricket where he currently plays for Surrey in the County Championship and Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash.
Sangakkara is also the second-highest ODI run-scorer of all-time with 14,234 runs from 404 matches while he scored 4,049 runs in 159 Twenty20 internationals.
