Rajapaksa resigns

Sri Lankan top-order batsman Bhanuka Rajapaksa quit international cricket today just days before the start of a one-day international series against Zimbabwe at home.

The 30-year-old left-hander resigned due to family obligations, Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement.

“I have very carefully considered my position as a player, husband and am taking this decision looking forward to fatherhood and associated familial obligations,” the board quoted him as saying.

Rajapaksa has scored 89 runs in five ODIs, along with 320 runs in his 18 T20 international appearances.

Last July he was fined $5,000 and handed a suspended ban for giving interviews criticising the national board after his exclusion from a tour of England.

Sri Lanka Cricket said then that the interview breached the player's contract.

In the interview Rajapaksa said that despite having passed the 2km run test, he had failed the skin-fold assessment, which made him ineligible for national selection, questioning the fitness-focused contracts being offered by SLC.

To his credit, Rajapaksa recruited a fitness trainer and passed the skin fold test in July last year, and was soon drafted into the national limited over teams where he has since been a regular fixture.

He was also captain of the Galle Gladiators franchise that reached the final of the Lanka Premier League for a second successive season, where they lost to the Jaffna-based franchise again.

Zimbabwe's three-match ODI series begins January 16 in Kandy, ahead of Sri Lanka's T20 tour of Australia slated for February.