Former Sri Lankan cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga said retirement of Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara from International cricket would make a disastrous impact on the Sri Lankan cricket team over the next 2-3 years.

“Mahela and Sangakkara are likely to retire from all forms of the game after 2015 World Cup and that will plunge the Sri Lankan cricket team into a serious crisis,” Ranatunga, who won the World Cup for Sri Lanka in 1996, said in an interview with Asian Mirror this afternoon.

“I underscored this problem a few years ago as I did not see any plan to absorb young talent into the Sri Lankan cricket tea. Now, the cricket team is on the verge of a serious crisis. Still the authorities haven’t identified this problem and a solution is nowhere to be seen,” he added.

“After the likes of Dulip Mendis and Ranjan Madugalla retired,” Ranatunga said,” players like us were there to take over their slots. After we retired, there were players like Marvan and Sanath came forward and performed brilliantly. Sanga and Mahela were the last players of that ‘lineage’. Over the past few years, our cricket authorities could not find potential replacements for Sanga and Mahela”

Former Sri Lankan captain said the young players who were selected for the national team did not perform consistently. “On the other hand,” he said,” there was no real plan to identify ‘real talent’ and give them enough opportunities.”

Ranatunga also asserted that projects that were carried out in the recent past by various parties to spot young talent were political campaigns that did not have any substance.

“They were carried out according to the whims and fancies of certain individuals. They were not comprehensive projects,” the former Sri Lankan captain said.

However, Chief Selector Sanath Jayasuriya, commenting on the same matter said, although the likes of Mahela Jayawardena are irreplaceable, there is exciting young talent on which Sri Lankan Cricket can capitalize in the future.