The end of an era in cricket has often been used to announce the retirement of a great international player, but for the first time, franchise cricket would see it’s dynamic role model leave the arena as Sri Lankan great Lasith Malinga announced his retirement from franchise cricket after not being named in the retention list of the Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians.
The announcement was made on behalf of the T20 World Cup-winning Sri Lankan captain late in the night. However, the whole Twitter erupted to salute and pay tribute to a man who was one of the torchbearers of the IPL, one of the true icons of the league.
Malinga, 37, had earlier decided against playing in the 2020 edition of the IPL citing his father’s health condition and also refused to play in the Lankan Premier League for a similar reason. Still, the highest wicket-taker in the IPL that too by a huge lead from the others at 170 wickets from 122 matches.
His average of 19.80 and strike rate of 16.62 are the best among bowlers with more than 100 wickets in IPL history. Malinga’s last game in the IPL was the 2019 IPL final win versus Mumbai’s eternal rivals Chennai Super Kings where he single-handedly won the game for the blue brigade by defending nine runs off the last over in front of a settled Shane Watson.
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