“In no way or form am I fit to play “

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Legendary Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara has been the stealing the spotlight in the County Championship in England as he recently came close to scoring six back-to-back centuries.

Sangakkara, who announced his retirement from international cricket in 2015, would have become just the fourth player in history to make six first-class hundreds in a row had he not fallen 16 runs short of the triple figure mark in the second innings of Surrey’s clash with Essex.

Given his sublime form with the bat, Sangakkara was asked whether he would consider coming out of retirement, but the 39-year-old brushed aside the idea.

“No, definitely not,” he said prior to Sri Lanka’s Champions Trophy match against India on Thursday. “Number one, I’m too old, you’ve seen my grey hair. I’m terrible on the field and in the cold my performance would drop about 40 per cent.

“In no way or form am I fit to play but like you said you can stay away from the game for a while, but it’s hard to take the Sri Lankan out of the Sri Lankan.”

Prior to the tournament, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews joked that he had continuously asked Sangakkara to consider donning the Sri Lanka jersey again.

“He’s just a freak,” Mathews had said. “He keeps scoring hundreds and hundreds. He’s got the Surrey record as well and I’m pretty sure he’s going to break many more records in his last season.”