The year that was – review of Sri Lanka cricket in 2025

The paucity of Test matches for the year was a concern for Captain Dhananjaya de Silva and it also led to the retirements of two senior players 

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

2025 is not a year where Sri Lanka’s cricket can reflect anything noteworthy or even an honorary mention as the national men’s team struggled in all three formats to establish itself.

With the T20I World Cup which Sri Lanka are hosting with India looming on the horizon, the national T20 squad was still in a state of fluctuation, still unsettled and lacking in consistency. The ODI team is somewhat settled and has been performing well largely at home than away, but the sad part is that Sri Lanka are beginning to play less Test matches by the year.

Having fought a long hard battle to gain full membership of the ICC and thereby become a Test-playing nation, Sri Lanka seems to have forgotten the past and have inclined more towards white ball cricket. To play only 4 Test matches for the entire 2025, to say the least, was a tragedy when most other countries are playing more. Apart from Australia, England and India, Zimbabwe and West Indies played 10 Tests each for the year.

So it came as no surprise when two of Sri Lanka’s senior most cricketers – former Test Captains Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews announced their retirements from international cricket as they were unable to motivate themselves to play just 4 Tests for an entire year. Karunaratne ended his international career with the second Test against Australia that also marked his 100th for his country, and Mathews followed four months later in the first Test against Bangladesh having appeared in 119 Tests.

“It is difficult for a Test player to keep himself motivated to play 4 Tests for a year and maintain his form,” said Karunaratne. “In the last 2-3 years after the WTC (World Test Championship) was introduced we have been having very little bilateral series. I know I cannot go for my next target 10,000 runs with the lesser number of Tests being played.”

Karunaratne ended his Test career with 7,222 runs and Mathews with 8,214 runs.

The paucity of Test matches played during the year not only caused concern for the two senior players but also drew the attention of current Test captain Dhananjaya de Silva who expressed his disappointment and urged Sri Lanka Cricket for more Test matches.

Sri Lanka Cricket defended their stance for a lesser number of Tests saying it was due to the World Test Championship cycle which allows only a certain number of Tests to be played for a year and also that preference was given to white ball matches during the year to prepare the team for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Sri Lanka played 13 One-Day Internationals and 18 T20 Internationals during the year compared to 4 Tests.

Sri Lanka Cricket’s CEO Ashley de Silva said: “We could organise Test matches against teams which are not taking part in the WTC, but the cost factor is a massive loss for us. We also have to look at financial sustainability. Playing more than 2 Tests is also the same. We can, but we will lose out on the revenue. It depends on the availability of the dates also. If you increase the number of Test matches we’ll have to reduce the number of ODIs and T20Is which is going to hit us economically and financially.

De Silva said that most of the countries leaned towards ODIs and T20Is than Tests because the broadcasters would always look at white ball cricket which will bring them the revenue.

“It’s about the broadcasting rights, we don’t get much from the spectator attendance. It is the viewership. When you look at the amounts that are being offered for the ODIs and T20Is it is very evident the preference is for white ball cricket.”

To overcome the national team’s struggles in the T20I version especially in the middle overs in batting and bowling, Sri Lanka Cricket assigned the services of power-hitting specialist Julian Wood as national batting coach for one year from 1 October, Dr. Rene Ferdinands, a specialist in wrist and finger spin as national spin bowling coach for two years from 30 September and former Indian fielding coach Ramakrishnan Sridhar as fielding coach of the national team from 11 December till the end of the T20 World Cup in March.

Sri Lanka began the year with a seven-run T20 International win against New Zealand at Nelson, but they failed to maintain the momentum faltering against Bangladesh 2-1, falling short to get beyond the Super Fours in the Asia Cup and beaten by Pakistan in the final of the T20I Tri-Series which also featured Zimbabwe. Their only win was beating Zimbabwe 2-1 in a bilateral series. In Tests, the two series played at home saw Sri Lanka lose 2-0 to Australia and beat Bangladesh 1-0 (1 drawn). The ODI performances were somewhat encouraging with Sri Lanka winning against Australia and Bangladesh at home and against Zimbabwe away, and losing to New Zealand and Pakistan both away.

In the ICC awards, Kamindu Mendis was crowned ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year after a fantastic 2024 season where he accumulated 1049 runs in 9 Tests averaging 74.92 with 5 centuries and 3 fifties. He also made it to the Men’s Test team of the year 2024. Charith Asalanka, Sri Lanka’s white ball captain was picked captain of the ODI Team of the Year 2024 with 3 other team mates – Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis and Wanindu Hasaranga.

Sri Lanka Cricket decided to postpone the 2025 edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) indefinitely to allow them to prepare the venues that would host the 2026 T20 World Cup matches – the Premadasa Cricket Stadium, Pallekele Cricket Stadium and SSC, generally a venue for Test matches but had lights installed converting it into a white ball cricket location.   

Before the year ran out a new cricket selection committee was put in place replacing the one headed by Upul Tharanga whose two-year term expired in December. Tharanga’s committee had done a decent job emphasising more on giving players a continuous run. Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Pramodya Wickramasinghe returned as chairman of a five-member committee comprising Indika de Saram and Tharanga Paranavithana (retained from the previous committee), Vinothen John and a woman selector Rasanjali de Alwis that will pick the men’s and women’s senior squads. Wickramasinghe was chief selector between 2021 and 2023 but Sri Lanka’s poor performance in the 2023 Cricket World Cup prompted his removal.  

The women’s cricketers also had mixed fortunes finishing runner-up to India in the ODI Tri-Series which also featured South Africa and ending fifth overall in the Women’s World Cup behind champions India, Australia, England and South Africa with one win, three losses and two no-results due to rain.