Lasith Malinga makes Sri Lanka top Twitter trend in India on Monday; here is why

Sri Lanka speedster Lasith Malinga is among the best limited-overs bowlers in the world. Over the years, the right-arm quick, who is renowned for his unusual action, has made lives difficult for batsmen with his toe-crushing yorkers and deceptive slower ones. Malinga retired from the longest format of the game way back in 2011, however, he has been playing white-ball cricket a long time and is among the best in the business in the limited-overs formats.

Lasith Malinga retirement: Sri Lankan legend likely to play T20 World Cup 2021 in India

The Malinga retirement from ODIs was announced by the cricketer himself in July 2019 after the first ODI against Bangladesh. But he continues to play in T20Is. Notably, the Sri Lanka veteran retired from franchise cricket in January this year ahead of IPL 2021. Malinga cited the ‘pandemic situation’ and ‘travel restrictions’ as the reasons behind his retirement. Malinga, who played for the Mumbai Indians team in the IPL, had opted out of IPL 2020 as well.

While it has been a long time since Malinga last played a competitive game, he still is in the Sri Lankan selectors' scheme of things and can soon be seen playing for his country in T20Is. According to a Morning Sports report, National Selection Committee Chairman Pramodya Wickramasinghe, on Friday, said that they will talk to Malinga soon and added that the legendary bowler is in their plans for the forthcoming T20 tours, including the T20 World Cup coming up in October.

Wickramasinghe further said that they are working out on a long-term plan aiming at the 2023 (50-over) World Cup where their main focus will be to adjust themselves to forming an accurate average in terms of two main aspects - age and fitness. He reckoned that they have found out that every successful team has a specific average on those two aspects and their plan is to set those benchmarks in their preparations.

Wickramasinghe, who took over as new selection committee head only last month, revealed that Lasith Malinga is also in their plans. He opined that one should never forget that the former Mumbai Indians team star is one of the greatest bowlers in their country, even in his present form and his records speak for that. The Sri Lankan selection committee chairman suggested that there are two back-to-back T20 World Cups that are coming up, this year and the next year, which is why they are going to discuss their plans with Malinga when they meet him in the next couple of days.

Lasith Malinga net worth

According to Sports News 360, the Lasith Malinga net worth figure is estimated to be approximately USD $8.5 million (₹65.13 crore). Some of the Lasith Malinga net worth information comprises of his total earnings from Sri Lanka Cricket as an active cricket player. The aforementioned Lasith Malinga net worth also includes his salary from Mumbai Indians through Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts.

IPL suspension timeline

Trouble started mounting when Match 30 between KKR and RCB got postponed after two of the KKR players, Sandeep Warrier and Varun Chakravarthy, tested positive for COVID. Later, three people in the CSK team including CEO Kasi Viswanathan and bowling coach L. Balaji also tested positive. As KKR played their previous match against Delhi Capitals, the whole Delhi Capitals team had to undergo quarantine. The IPL suspension announcement was made after SRH player Wriddhiman Saha also tested positive along with Amit Mishra from Delhi Capitals.

This caused the whole Sunrisers Hyderabad team to go into quarantine. Therefore, Match 31 between the 2016 winners and the title-holders Mumbai Indians got cancelled as a result of which the Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC) and the Sourav Ganguly-led Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to suspend the competition with immediate effect with no other alternatives before them. It will be interesting to see when how the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI stages the remainder of the IPL 2021 in a packed international cricketing calendar. 

SOURCE: ICC TWITTER