Vaas ends Test career

Chaminda Vaas is set to play his final Test match this week against Pakistan at Colombo

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Sri Lanka seamer Chaminda Vaas has confirmed he will retire from Test cricket after the current series against Pakistan.

Only a fortnight ago the 35-year-old had denied claims from Sri Lanka chief selector Asantha de Mel that he had intended quitting the Test arena, before being called up for the third and final Test against Pakistan in Colombo which starts tomorrow.

Vaas, Sri Lanka’s second-highest wicket taker with 354 in 110 Test matches, will continue to be available for his country in the shorter formats of the game.

“I am officially retiring from Test cricket after the third Test against Pakistan, but will continue playing one-day and Twenty20 matches until the 2011 World Cup," he told reporters in Colombo.

With Sri Lanka having already wrapped up the series 2-0, the match at the SSC Ground will now act as a swansong to Vaas’ five-day career that began against the same opposition in 1994.

Vaas had not played for his country since their Test series in Pakistan in March was abruptly cut short following the terrorist attack on their team bus.

Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara led the plaudits for Vaas, admitting it would be difficult to replace arguably the country’s best ever new-ball bowler.

"Vaas is a true champion and probably the only Sri Lankan fast bowler who can be called a true legend of the game," he said.

"No matter who replaces Vaasy in the bowling attack they will take years and years to reach the standards he has set - and maybe they never will."

Vaas’ farewell game will come at the scene of his finest display with ball in Test cricket when he claimed 14 wickets in a Test match against West Indies in 2001 - claiming his best figures of 7-71 in the second innings.

He was also a handy lower-order batsman scoring 3,085 runs at an average of 24.48 and hit his only Test century, an unbeaten 100, against Bangladesh two years ago.

Just whether Vaas will be selected for the upcoming five-match one-day series against Pakistan, which begins in Dambullah on July 30, is a source of some debate with the seamer having not played in that format of the game for his country for almost a year.

His last appearance in Twenty20 cricket is even further back still - against Australia at the 2007 World Twenty20 in South Africa - while he was cut from the squad for last month’s second edition of the tournament in England.