'It's quite sad to be honest' - Angelo Mathews urges for more Test cricket for Sri Lanka

Published - 16 Jun 2025, 18:59 IST | Updated - 16 Jun 2025, 21:30 IST

Sri Lankan legend Angelo Mathews voiced out his frustration and concern regarding the lack of Test cricket for nations other than India, England and Australia. The veteran will hang his boots from the red-ball format following the first Test match against Bangladesh at Galle on June 17.

Sri Lanka will play four Tests in 2025, which is their lowest number of Tests in a calendar year since 2013. In the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle Australia, India and England played at least 19 Tests over a two-year period. The WTC winner, South Africa played 13.

Mathews believed that the team should have been given more Test matches. He mentioned the youngsters are looking forward to representing the country in the red-ball format as much as possible.

"I think it's quite sad to be honest. I mean, the younger generation are urging for more Test cricket. Test cricket is obviously the pinnacle of cricket. We all should push for more Tests. These guys are so enthusiastic about Test cricket,” said Mathews as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"I feel there has to be a minimum of 10 matches at least [in a year]. Teams like England, India or Australia are playing 15-plus games a year. Why can't we play? We can. If we keep pushing, I mean, we have to. We have won World Cups. We have done so much for cricket as a nation, and we deserve to play Test cricket, just like Australia, India and England," he added.

The 38-year-old will retire from Test cricket and highlighted that there will not be any Test for a year. He stated that it is good to give opportunities to others, as they will not get a chance till the next year.

"I played my 100th Test in Galle, so I thought I'd say goodbye in Galle. But the main reason was because we don't have any games coming up, at least for now. After this, we'll be having our next assignment in Test cricket after a year's time, that is a very long wait," said Mathews.

"I thought it's good to give an opportunity to whoever is going to replace me in the second Test, because he's not going to get an opportunity till the next year (laughs). And in that year, you don't know what's going to happen. So I thought I'd just play one game and then try and give an opportunity to the other guy who's replacing me in the second Test," he concluded.