Port Elizabeth: The Mad Max finally ran out of time. Literally, as Aravinda de Silva, perhaps the greatest willow-wielder to emerge from the Emerald Isle of Sri Lanka, was run out in his final innings for his country in the semi-final against Australia yesterday.
I was hoping it wasnt the last one but unfortunately its an emotional day for me, the 37-year-old, who played 93 Tests and 308 one-dayers and took part in five World Cups, said after the match.
Its pretty sad but after doing the hard work we really didnt apply ourselves when we batted, de Silva said about the rain-affected 48-run defeat. I think we ought to be blamed, I feel we should have gone on and made 212 which was a very good total to chase.
De Silva made his debut against England at Lords in August 1984, playing against the likes of Ian Botham and David Gower. Team mate Muttiah Muralitharan would have been 12 at the time.
He made 6,361 Test runs at an average of 42.97 and scored 9,284 ODI runs the third highest individual tally in one-day history behind Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin.
Its been a long career and I have been away from home for far too long, so I think its high time I spent a little bit of time at home with my family and concentrated on whatever the second phase of my life brings.
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