Lasith Malinga retires at 38; Seamer is the most prolific bowler in the men’s T20 internationals with 107 wickets in 84 games; Sri Lanka is the only great man to take three ODI hat-tricks and four four-ball wickets twice in international matches; Malinga last played with the national team in 2020
Lasith Malinga retired from cricket at the age of 38
The great Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka, the most prolific bowler in international T20 cricket, announced his retirement at the age of 38.
The closer, famous for his bowling action and devastating yorkers, took 107 wickets in 84 T20I and captained Sri Lanka to the T20 World Cup title in 2014, where they beat India in the final.
Malinga retired from test cricket in 2011 and played his last one-day international match in 2019, but continued to play T20 for his country.
The most recent appearance of the pacemaker occurred in a T20I at home in the West Indies in March 2020.
“I have had many experiences throughout my career and I want to share all my experience in the future, especially with young cricketers,” he said in a post on social media.
Malinga is the only bowler to do three hat-tricks in ODI cricket, he did so against South Africa at the 2007 World Cup, Kenya at the 2011 World Cup, and then Australia later in 2011.
He is also the only man to claim four wickets on four balls twice in international matches, achieving the feat in the aforementioned ODI against South Africa, as well as in a T20 international against New Zealand in 2019.
Malinga took 338 wickets in 226 ODI and 101 wickets in 30 test matches.
