Dimuth’s decision not made in haste, says SLC source

Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne’s desire to resign from the Test captaincy was not taken in haste, according to sources at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

“No, he has not decided to leave the captaincy suddenly. It was also not after the team’s heavy loss in the second Test. He wanted to leave the captaincy on a high note. In fact, he had spoken about this before boarding a flight to New Zealand,” the source said. On Monday, the 35-year-old Karunaratne had openly expressed his desire to relinquish the Test captaincy even without giving any hints to team-mates.

He is likely to have spoken to the chief selector (Pramodya Wickremesinghe) before the tour began.

“He wants to hand over the Test captaincy to Dhananjaya de Silva, though he may have just discussed it with the chief selector,” the source said.

“He has not yet tendered his resignation and therefore the question of accepting the same does not arise yet.we are not sure whether the selectors would persuade him to stay but it is sure he wants to continue to be the team-member as of now”, the source further added.

“His resignation, as and when it comes, will be discussed by the selectors in consultation with the SLC officials,” the source confirmed.