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Was Kumar Sangakkara selfish to retire in 2015?

Leo23

Leo23

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One of the greatest batsman of all time retired in 2015 at his peak knowing fully that his team will decline sharply without him

Was he selfish to retire for personal reasons and should sri lankan cricket board have done more to convince him to stay?

Two years on he is still one of the best batsman in the world and could have easily played international cricket till 2019 especially by giving up wicket keeping duties

He would surely have prevented some of the humiliating defeats in tests and odis especially at home

Even now if he comes out of retirement and plays for a couple of years he can help guide the young sri lankan batsman and bring some solidity to a steeply declining outfit
 
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His plan from the very start was to retire at the 2015 World Cup, he was basically persuaded to play a home Test series a couple of months later. He knew he can't make it to 2019 World Cup so no point eating into the 4 year cycle from WC to WC. Being selfish because you retired while being at the top is a nonsensical argument. You SHOULD be retiring while you are at the top. I'll take his retirement over the likes of Tendulkar any day who kept on encroaching upon the opportunities of youngsters like Rahane for years upon years only to reach some pointless landmarks.

If the team isn't able to come up with good replacements it's the failure of the cricketing system in the country, not the player retiring.
 
He wasn't very good in his last year of test cricket - failed in the series vs Pakistan and failed in the series vs India and both were played at home.

Was phenomenal until the very end in odis though.

Was he selfish? Well he retired when he was a few months away from his 38th birthday - just how long did people expect him to play on until?
 
Yes In my opinion, Sanga was selfish. Didnt care about SL team. I feel he must have thought about protecting his average. he could have easily stayed for a few more years and groomed some reasonable replacement for him. since he left the scene, SL batting lineup was more like headless chicken. He was more worried about securing his country contract while he was reasonably good.
 
hafeezrocks said:
Wasnt getting any runs at all in the last few International series IIRC.
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He struggled in his last two Test series against Pakistan and India, though he did make a sublime double hundred in NZ before that in early 2015.

His ODI form was brilliant though. Remember that he retired after the 2015 World Cup and he made hundreds in four consecutive games there.
 
thehub said:
Yes In my opinion, Sanga was selfish. Didnt care about SL team. I feel he must have thought about protecting his average. he could have easily stayed for a few more years and groomed some reasonable replacement for him. since he left the scene, SL batting lineup was more like headless chicken. He was more worried about securing his country contract while he was reasonably good.
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Why the hell would he play if he can't score runs? He was already getting too old
 
he would have been selfish for playing on, he was in decline in his last few series and stepped aside to allow someone else to have a chance with future world cups in mind
 
It was better that he retired when he did. Sri Lanka needed to move on. As someone above mentioned Sri Lanka needed to plan for the next World Cup.
 
He did the right thing. He retired at the time when Lanka had enough time to build for WC.
 
thehub said:
Yes In my opinion, Sanga was selfish. Didnt care about SL team. I feel he must have thought about protecting his average. he could have easily stayed for a few more years and groomed some reasonable replacement for him. since he left the scene, SL batting lineup was more like headless chicken. He was more worried about securing his country contract while he was reasonably good.
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the thing is, there is only so much he can do. The next best Lankan batsmen of the coming generation - Chandimal and Matthews had already been 'groomed' by Jaya and Sanga, but they weren't able to step up after the retirements of the duo.

Yes, I think he did have a lot of cricket left in him, and he could have helped Lanka avoid some test match and ODI losses, but don't think he would have been able to stem the tide, since the bowling is a real problem for Lanka, and they would've lost most series even with Sanga.
 
Averaged 64 in last 25 tests was hardly struggling law of averages caught up with him last few series most likely.
 
Joseph Gomes said:
Why the hell would he play if he can't score runs? He was already getting too old
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He was scoring runs around the time he retired. I don't believe in this leaving on a high crap. He could have easily played an yr or two. Yes his ave would have gone down couple of runs. Who cares. That might have benefited his team the fact him being in the dressing room.
 
Proactive_ said:
His plan from the very start was to retire at the 2015 World Cup, he was basically persuaded to play a home Test series a couple of months later. He knew he can't make it to 2019 World Cup so no point eating into the 4 year cycle from WC to WC. Being selfish because you retired while being at the top is a nonsensical argument. You SHOULD be retiring while you are at the top. I'll take his retirement over the likes of Tendulkar any day who kept on encroaching upon the opportunities of youngsters like Rahane for years upon years only to reach some pointless landmarks.

If the team isn't able to come up with good replacements it's the failure of the cricketing system in the country, not the player retiring.
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that is bs

when you are at the top of your game you should be out there playing for your country and not sitting at home with cigar and slippers

tendulkar's example is different because india is a batting power house and they could afford losing tendulkar while he was still at his peak

and 100 hundreds is not a pointless landmark. no batsman in history would have retired on 99 hundreds.

sangakkara's retirement had nothing to do with the world cup in 2019. if that was the case he would only have retired from odis in 2015 and continued to play test cricket

he retired for selfish and personal reasons and while sri lanka were struggling he was plundering useless hundreds in county cricket

there is a reason why 99% of the players in history did not retire during their peak and only retired when they were in decline and that is because retiring on your peak for personal glory is extremely selfish
 
Gabbar Singh said:
He wasn't very good in his last year of test cricket - failed in the series vs Pakistan and failed in the series vs India and both were played at home.

Was phenomenal until the very end in odis though.

Was he selfish? Well he retired when he was a few months away from his 38th birthday - just how long did people expect him to play on until?
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he only had a couple of bad series against pakistan and india and struggled against yasir and ashwin who bowled superbly. he is a human after all. there is no doubt that had he not retired he would have been back to his usual form very soon.

it is not about his age. at 38 he was still one of the best batsman in the world and the best in sri lanka by miles. he should have carried on for the sake of sri lankan cricket.
 
He was done with cricket at highest level and wanted to retire. Nothing selfish about it.

You should retire when you don't have passion or you don't perform to justify place in your team.
 
How selfish of him to retire at 38 years of age after 15+ years in the game.
 
Sanga retiring from ODI's was the correct decision. He wont feature in 2019 world cup, so whats the point of him continuing for a year or 2 more? To win few meaningless bilateral ODI games?

As for tests, his form was waning in that format and he's 38 fgs. SL had to move on from him and Jayawardene eventually. So no, it wasn't a selfish decision.

SL gave Thirimanne, Chandimal plenty of time to adjust and take over when these 2 biggies retired, too bad for Lankans none of their youngsters have stepped up to do that and frankly they just dont have the bowling to compete.

Matthews also hasn't shown great character or responsibility in doing anything about the state SL in. He was not a great captain but he could use his experience in helping steer this young SL side or even inspire them with good performances but he's been found wanting.
 
Leo23 said:
that is bs

when you are at the top of your game you should be out there playing for your country and not sitting at home with cigar and slippers

tendulkar's example is different because india is a batting power house and they could afford losing tendulkar while he was still at his peak

and 100 hundreds is not a pointless landmark. no batsman in history would have retired on 99 hundreds.

sangakkara's retirement had nothing to do with the world cup in 2019. if that was the case he would only have retired from odis in 2015 and continued to play test cricket

he retired for selfish and personal reasons and while sri lanka were struggling he was plundering useless hundreds in county cricket

there is a reason why 99% of the players in history did not retire during their peak and only retired when they were in decline and that is because retiring on your peak for personal glory is extremely selfish
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LOL Bradman retired with an average of 99.94. If it was Tendulkar in place of Bradman, he probably would have come back next innings, scored the 4 runs for the 100 average, retired hurt and announced his retirement the next day with an average of 100.

There was ZERO point in Tendulkar carrying on after WC 2011, or at least after his failures in Eng and Aus, but he selfishly carried on during all the home series which could have been utilised to hone a new talent like Rahane who has averaging 65+ in FC at that time but alas.

Sangakkara knew it was better to retire before the eventual career ending decline kicked in which is a reality for every batsman. The signs of it were evident in the last home series he played; which he was persuaded to play by the board. He had timed his retirement perfectly at the 2015 WC. The only mistake in this scenario falls on the Sri Lankan cricket system to not being able to produce good replacements for your 38 year old retiring batsman. It's nonsensical to blame the batsman in this situation and worse.. to call him selfish.
 
Leo23 said:
One of the greatest batsman of all time retired in 2015 at his peak knowing fully that his team will decline sharply without him

Was he selfish to retire for personal reasons and should sri lankan cricket board have done more to convince him to stay?

Two years on he is still one of the best batsman in the world and could have easily played international cricket till 2019 especially by giving up wicket keeping duties

He would surely have prevented some of the humiliating defeats in tests and odis especially at home

Even now if he comes out of retirement and plays for a couple of years he can help guide the young sri lankan batsman and bring some solidity to a steeply declining outfit
Click to expand...

The better solution would be him and Jaya playing whatever T20s they want and playing only major tournaments for Srilanka.
 
Sri Lanka Cricket Board begged him to delay his retirement numerous times which he did.

Its not his job to oversee development of next generation of players, that is the Board's job and SLC is one of the worst in the world. The quality of pitches and FC competition is substandard and one reason why they're not producing more talent.

SLC themselves are ridden with corruption and political interference, I don't blame him if he wanted to get away from those clowns.
 
How ironic that the OP is defending sachin's aim to score hundred centuries despite being a burden on the team after 2011 WC and un-necessarily forcing laxman into retirement before him but claims sangakarra was selfish to retire at 38.

I am a sachin fan but His 100th ton was the most selfish innings i have ever seen by him and it lost india the match as well as kicked them out of a tournament of which they were defending champions. But hey nobody will mention anything about him because it is sachin's ton. This is exactly the attitude by sachinistas i don't like
 
His avg would have dropped by a country mile had he continued for a year more, all signs were there that he was not gonna score anymore, he was not selfish, he was clever
 
joly said:
His avg would have dropped by a country mile had he continued for a year more, all signs were there that he was not gonna score anymore, he was not selfish, he was clever
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Very thin line between being selfish and clever in the team game like cricket.
 
One should retire when he is still at the peak of his prowess rather than hanging on till one gets dropped. That way he retired with dignity when he was still on top.
 
I believe he was wrong to retire but I wouldn't say he was selfish. None of us can put ourselves in his shoes and there are many other factors behind his retirement eg family, his hunger at international level etc.

However, there is no doubt that he would still walk into the current Sri Lanka side for all 3 formats and would be the best batsmen. I think in the recent ICC CT 2017 he even said Sri Lanka asked him to replace Tharanga who was suspended for slow over rate. But I guess his hunger must have gone.
 
He retired at the age of 38.

How long did people want him to play? Just because he was good up to that age doesn't mean it was the wrong time to retire.

It's a personal decision and it's nice to see someone leave without everyone wanting them dropped.
 
theres more to life than cricket

he's a hero to SL cricket, arguably the greatest cricketer they ever produced. Calling his selfish because he retired at 38 is asinine
 
Not at all. The guy was saying that he won't continue after the WC. Instead of holding on to his place, he let a youngster take over it so that they can prepare for the next WC. Nothing selfish about it. Its upto the individual players to grab their places. Same happens in every team.
 
Yes, it was a selfish move, tendulkar once said that it is selfish to retire when you are on top because if you are at the top of your game then you should serve the nation by playing and contributing instead of leaving the team in a hole with your retirement
 
coy0607 said:
theres more to life than cricket

he's a hero to SL cricket, arguably the greatest cricketer they ever produced. Calling his selfish because he retired at 38 is asinine
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Then why did he continue to play cricket ? He scored like 7 or 8 county centuries in a month, how hard is to do that at international ?
 
squarecut said:
One should retire when he is still at the peak of his prowess rather than hanging on till one gets dropped. That way he retired with dignity when he was still on top.
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if you put personal dignity above the needs of the team,you are indeed selfish!
 
Buffet said:
He should have played till 50.
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age is irrelevant.he left sri lanka hanging when they needed him badly.

he retired for personal interests and did not take the needs of his team into consideration.
 
Leo

Do you think if Sanga retired this year it would make any difference.

It's the failure of the likes of Chandimal Thirimanne eranga and many other near senior cricketers to fulfill their potential.
 
It's incredible really. What I learned from this thread is that a player retiring on a high after 15 years of service and at the age of 38 to pave way for younger cricketers who the cricketing system in the country should be able to provide is somehow "selfish".
 
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Specialisttailender said:
Then why did he continue to play cricket ? He scored like 7 or 8 county centuries in a month, how hard is to do that at international ?
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the pressure is totally different at domestic and international cricket. Not to mention, playing a few weeks here and there for some T20 league, or even a couple of months of First Class cricket is very very different both physically and mentally than playing around the year for the country
 
No, Sanga wasn't selfish. I selfishly wish he played a few years longer, though. I don't buy the idea that he was slipping in tests. To my eye, he was getting better and better, barring a few lapses in motivation.
 
Leo23 said:
age is irrelevant.he left sri lanka hanging when they needed him badly.

he retired for personal interests and did not take the needs of his team into consideration.
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He didn't have passion left to keep playing at the top level. Age is not relevant, but if your mind if not there then it's better to stop playing at highest level. His priorities changed.
 
Buffet said:
He didn't have passion left to keep playing at the top level. Age is not relevant, but if your mind if not there then it's better to stop playing at highest level. His priorities changed.
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All that is true, he didn't make any wrong decision, he had every right to retire whenever he wanted to, but the thread is about whether he was selfish to retire when he did and the answer is yes, he was selfish, he put his own priorities above the needs of his team, not saying there is anything wrong with it, every one is selfish, but the retirement move when he was at the top of his game was a selfish move, there is no two ways about it.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnThisDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnThisDay</a> in 2015, Kumar Sangakkara bid farewell to international cricket.<br><br>The Sri Lanka legend finished with 28,016 runs, including 63 centuries &#55357;&#56908; <a href="https://t.co/Ammqz0vGBS">pic.twitter.com/Ammqz0vGBS</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1297738656652963840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
You know the old adage - it's always best to retire when people ask "Why?" rather than "Why not?"
 
It is a bit of an insult itself to even question whether he was selfish because he was actually selfless. He could have easily clung on like Hafeez and our veterans do but he put the team's best interests first after the rapid decline in form.

Our 35+ players could learn a lot from his approach.
 
topspin said:
It is a bit of an insult itself to even question whether he was selfish because he was actually selfless. He could have easily clung on like Hafeez and our veterans do but he put the team's best interests first after the rapid decline in form.

Our 35+ players could learn a lot from his approach.
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Exactly right! Won’t hear anything against this man, his support for Pakistan cricket over the past years has been exemplary
 
A guy that served his country valiantly for 15 years retired too soon and is selfish :yk2 let me know who your supplier is so I can get some of that good stuff to :yk3
 
People often fail to see cricket from the point of view of cricketers. What is merely a record breaking race between few individuals is a life style and an every day job for the cricketers. Training, camping, travelling, team goals, pressure of expectations etc there comes a time when all these things seem too much.

Sanga's had a terrific career. We congratulate him for it. It was up to him to decide till when he wanted to play and he must have made whatever felt most genuine.
 
There is nothing making people happy. Tendulkar was in very good form(better than 90% batsmen of that time) I wont say his peak when India won the WC. This is the time we feel when he should have retired but he didn't he wanted his 100th 100 and may be 200 tests. We called him selfish and now Sangakarra who was going down and wasnt getting runs the way he used to (still better than 90% batsmen of that time), decided to retire and we call him selfish too.
 
It was not selfish. He played for around 15 years. That's a long career.

Fault likes with SL who didn't groom enough players.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">On this day in 2015, Sri Lanka legend and ICC Hall of Fame member Kumar Sangakkara retired from international cricket after playing his final Test in Colombo &#55357;&#56399; <a href="https://t.co/d2DGhMcXp8">pic.twitter.com/d2DGhMcXp8</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1562311250348240901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
The most respected cricketer in the country. A gem of a gentleman and a true sportsman. The reason he retired was for Sri Lanka to groom a player for 2019 world up to play at the key number 3 position he occupied. A down to earth human being and does a lot to the crisis hit country without going public about it. No intentions of politics. A role model for many in the country.
 
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