The Sri Lankan southpaw batter, Bhanuka Rajapaksa has decided to retire from international cricket. As per the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) source he has given the letter of retirement to the cricket administration on Monday, January 3. According to the source, the batter has stated in the letter that he will be not able to play for the team with the latest fitness standards introduced by the SLC especially the skinfold levels.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa feels that he will not get the freedom to continue playing his attacking game as he will not be able to do his power-hitting if he brings down his skinfold levels any further. It is also been reported that the board hasn’t yet accepted the letter of retirement. In order to determine the fitness and endurance levels of the players, the 2km test was introduced earlier last year.
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However after a request was made by the Cricket Technical Advisory Committee, the benchmark of the test which was 8.35 minutes earlier was increased to 8.55 minutes. However, according to some of the recent decisions, the SLC selectors now want all their players to perform the 2km run within the expected benchmark of 8.10 minutes.
According to the tweaks, the players who run below the benchmark up to 8.35 minutes will be considered for selection. Whereas on the other hand, the SLC will retain a specific percentage from the annual contract fee. This will be continued until the player manages to reach the expected target. Also, the skin fold level has been lowered to 70 from 85 by the cricket administration.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa was first selected for the 2010 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. He was one of the key batters of the team then. He exuded his flair by finishing as the highest run-scorer for the team in the tournament with 253 runs to his account.
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Bhanuka Rajapaksa also had a decent outing in Australia with the U-19 team in 2009 wherein he played a dominating knock of 154 off 111 balls in a one-dayer and finished the series as the highest run-scorer. He has so far featured in five ODIs and 18 T20Is for the country having scored 89 and 320 runs in the formats respectively.
