Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews today said his team will look to give retiring legend Kumar Sangakkara a winning send off when they take on India in a highly-emotional second cricket Test starting here tomorrow.
Sangakkara will bid farewell to international cricket after the second Test and Mathews said it will be a highly emotional affair for his side.
"It's going to be an emotional game for all of us as a great of Sri Lanka cricket, a great servant for the team, and a great human being is saying goodbye," said Mathews today.
"We can't thank him enough for what he has done for Sri Lankan cricket and the team over the past so many years. We thank him truly and wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.
"The best we could do is try and win the game so that we win the series. That will be the best farewell for him. We are trying our best to do that. The boys are all well prepared. We trained extremely hard in the past two days, even though it rained yesterday, on all aspects of the game and we are ready to go," he added.
It has been a muted affair here in Sri Lanka, ever since the Test series began. Sangakkara himself has stayed away from all the attention, instead focusing on his last international match.
The coming few days will nevertheless see an outpouring of emotion from every quarter.
"From what I can see, he just wants to score a hundred tomorrow. He's worked extremely hard and is so determined to do that and I truly wish and hope he does that. It's going to be an emotional game for him as well," said Mathews.
"He's been with us for so long, with the national team, and he has been the backbone of Sri Lankan batting over the past 18 years. It's going to be tough game for him as well emotionally but all good things have to come to an end unfortunately. After the match, we will have a small get-together farewell for him as well," he added.
