Chamari Atapattu retires from Sri Lanka Cricket

 

Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket captain Chamari Atapattu has announced her retirement from Sri Lanka cricket. It is reported that she plans to move overseas. This was after Sri Lanka failed to qualify for the World Cup and not played international matches for 20 months

Her 13 year career came to an end Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket team do not qualify for the 2022 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand as the qualifiers in Zimbabwe have been abandoned due to the COVID situation. The new variant in the African region has been proven more deadly than other variants. Major concerns have risen in many countries because of this new variant.

Sri Lanka’s ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier matches against the West Indies and Ireland were cancelled. The team were under severe threat as up to to 7 Cricketers have been tested positive for Covid-19. Ireland Women also abandoned the match due to travel restrictions back home.

Her Career

Her departure from the team leaves a huge void to fill. She was the most hard hitting batter Sri Lanka Women’s cricket has ever seen and is the only centurion in both WODI and WT20I formats. She is also the highest ever run scorer in both formats. In ODIs, she has scored more than 1600 runs and in ODIs, has scored more than 2600 runs, including 5 centuries and a top score of 178*.

An aggressive southpaw who opened the batting, she had a few good years ahead of her but she has decided to move overseas for her cricket career. She is also the first Sri Lankan women’s cricketer to play franchise cricket. Her Big Bash League team Perth Scorchers also won the finals yesterday, which she wasn’t a part of due to national commitment. As a player, she is well respected around the world.