Jayawardene insists quitting Sri Lanka T20 captaincy nothing to do with WC final loss

Colombo, Oct 8(ANI): Mahela Jayawardene has relinquished team's Twenty20 captaincy after they lost World Cup final by 36 runs to West Indies in Colombo on Sunday, and he insisted the decision to quit as captain had nothing to do with their fourth consecutive loss in the finals of a major ICC tournament since 2007.

"I had told the selectors before the tournament started that I won't captain in T20 and they needed to groom someone else for the future," Sports24 quoted Jayawardene, as saying.

Jayawardene will however continue as a player in the shortest format and will also lead in both Test and one-day cricket.

The accomplished batsman has scored 1 224 runs in 44 Twenty20 internationals at a strike rate of 133.77 per 100 balls.

Sri Lanka has now lost two successive 50-over World Cup finals in 2007 and 2011 and two World Twenty20 finals in 2009 and 2012. (ANI)