By Srian Obeyesekere

The game of Cricket touched a misty moment for Sri Lanka’s retiring Dimuth Karunaratne on Thursday as he was accorded a farewell bat salute arc he walked through by his Sri Lankan colleagues as well as the Australians in the proud zenith of what was his dream 100th test match to bow out with that added to the nostalgic send off with his parents and other family members gracing the moving occasion.

By and large, Sri Lanka’s most accomplished tried and tested taskmaster in the upfront opening slot ever produced, Karunaratne’s great career is coloured in the magnificence of 16 test centuries in a total of over 7000 runs that have cascaded from the copybook left hander’s bat, a high which he did lament he could not translate to the landmark 10,000 runs hall of fame for the reason of the far and few test match opportunities that had robbed him of that honor.

Karunaratne’s passion for the game however, remains stayed in what would be a continuity to serving it as a future coach as he would be shortly heading to Australia, that famous cricketing land that is the cornerstone hub for. cricketers going the ultimate distance in their chosen fields to turning a corner as coaching professionals.