Roshan Mahanama speaks to CricInfo:

Replying to recent speculation in the media and in the public arena, Sri Lanka's discarded opening batsman and world class fielder, Roshan Mahanama says that he has no plans of playing cricket for his country again. Mahanama says he went through a lot during his cricketing career in Sri Lanka and wasn't rewarded well for his service. The 34-year-old stylish right-handed batsman is now contemplating whether to play domestic cricket in Sri Lanka next year or accept an offer to play for Ferntree Gully Footballers cricket club in Melbourne, Australia.

During an exclusive interview with CricInfo, Mahanama, also denied being approached by bookmakers during the home series against Australia in 1992 and ever having a dialogue with former cricketer Sidath Wettamuny about it.

However he did reveal that many of his teammates had received phone calls from anonymous bookmakers and had discussed it with the team members and The Management.

Mahanama made his test debut during a home series against Pakistan in 1985/86 and since then have played in 52 matches, 89 innings to accumulate 2576 runs at an average of 29.27 with four centuries and 11 fifties. He has held 56 catches and holds a world record for the highest ever partnership of 576 runs for the second wicket with Sanath Jayasuriya, during which he scored his career best 225runs.

His ODI debut was also made in the same tour since then batting in 198 innings in 213 matches to score 5162 runs at an average of 29.49 with four centuries and 35 fifties. He has held for 107 catches.

The following is a transcription of interview:

Q: Roshan, its almost ten months after you quit international cricket, but still certain sections urge you to come back to the game. How do you consider this?

I took my decision when they picked two squads for the one day internationals and the test matches against Australia last year for which I was excluded despite performing well at the 1999 World Cup in England.

Now some say, "In vain he had retired, he had couple of years of cricket left in him" and so on. But they should have looked into that then not now.

What I can't accept is the reasoning. They said they were coming up with a youth policy and that they were looking at the next world cup. That policy has now gone for six. It is the same old lot who were around before.

They categorised four of the senior players and then the two comparatively younger players were out of the team, there's no youth policy in that. And now they keep on changing players, with the senior players coming in and out.

I think its not the age that they should look into, it's the fitness, fielding and performance that counts. If they were saying that my performances weren't good I cant accept either because I was the second highest scorer for Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup.

What I feel now is that I have retired and I have no plans of playing for Sri Lanka again.

Q: In your resignation letter, it was stated that it was decision painfully arrived at after careful thought. What made it so painful?

To be honest, Cricket was basically my life. I was playing cricket from the age of nine until I was 33, it was cricket and nothing but cricket. I only did my O/Ls and did not want to continue further studies, because I decided go in the direction of cricket. When you do something for so long to leave it like that was obviously painful but I always felt that I had another couple of years of cricket left in me, and that made it worse. The way they treated me added salt to the wounds.

Q: Roshan, you are a person who has suffered a lot from controversial selections, How do you see the role of being a selector and what do you think is needed to be a good selector?

A selector is a person who should have immense experience of representing his country and have played cricket for a longer period. In my personal view it should be a full time job. Most of our selectors rely on paper scorecards. I don't think it's right by the players. I know in Australia and in other countries they make it a full time job and pay the selectors to go and watch the matches. I think they should do that here, I know I was affected purely because of that. After getting dropped there were some selectors who told me "sorry we had to go by paper and your performance wasn't good and that you know. That obviously means they hadn't been watching the game.

Q: There were speculations that you will change your present club, Bloomfield SC for the on-coming domestic premier season. Is it true?

No, I haven't really decided it, People want to know whether I would play for Bloomfield or not., Bloomfield had a bit of a bad season last time and I know that there have been a few problems. There were a few other clubs who have given me an offer after coming back from Australia - CCC, Galle CC, Sebastianites, Tamil Union. However my allegiance will always be with Bloomfield.

At the moment I am not sure that I want to stay here. I had one season in Australia playing for Ferntree Gully Footballers Cricket Club in Melbourne. They wanted me to continue for them and promised to get me Australian citizenship. But Sri Lanka is my country and I told them that I had to go back to Sri Lanka. After I came back two months ago I had no plans to go back to Australia, I thought of playing here for one or two seasons of club cricket to finish off my cricketing career.

But now I have realised the situation here and am very upset about so many things, that now I am re-considering the offer which I got in Australia. But that is also not finalised, we've got to wait and see how things work out, I would go there to play a season or two but not to live there.

Q: Every cricketer has his ups and downs in his performance throughout a career. What was the most difficult time you think you went through?

There have been few instances where it has been hard for me. But the last two or three years before I retired were really tough because I was in and out of the side and playing at various positions. If you ask any international cricketer, if one does not have a game plan, mentally it is really tough. But I am happy because I have done what the side wanted me to do and the country wanted at that time.

Q: What was the period you liked most and are most proud of in your career?

I would say number one was winning the world cup. That was the greatest thing not only for me for all Sri Lankans I suppose. During the world cup in the semi-finals against India, when we were in a difficult situation at 25-3 and I went in and did my job to the maximum I could with Aravinda, and I am thus happy to have contributed towards winning the world cup.

Another incident, which gave me a lot of satisfaction, was the world record for the highest ever stand in test cricket.

Q: You joined our elite group of cricket captains in Sri Lanka, but it was unfortunately for only a single tour. Do you regret not having that opportunity for a longer period?

No, not at all, because the captaincy was not the thing which I was looking for and was working towards. I just that I always wanted to do something for my country and the side and whatever came my way I accepted. At least looking back on my career I can be satisfied that I lead the country for one tour. I don't regret not being the captain for a longer period.

Q: You are a cricketer who has played cricket in Australia. How do you see the domestic structure here and comparatively over there in Australia?

Its difficult to compare because Australia is always very well organized and they have got so many facilities. When you compare the facilities they have and the facilities we have here there is a huge difference. We should be happy with the way we are playing at the international level with the facilities available. We also have fewer clubs compared to what they have in Australia. One thing I can suggest is that we should have a BCCSL organised Cricket Academy.

Q: Diverting to another topical subject, Roshan, you were one of the three players who were alleged to have been approached by bookmakers during a home test series against Australia in 1992. Was there any such incident?

I totally deny any approach on that particular occasion. Like I said earlier, this was the second time Sidath let me down, first time he dropped me from the side for no reason, now he comes out and says something which I never told him about. We were not approached by any bookmakers during that particular series.

Sidath also indicated that we has also requested for police protection but he has got his faxed mixed up, we asked for police protection in 1994 when I was as captain prior to our triangular tournament in Sharjah.

Q: Have you been approached with regard to match-fixing any time before or after that series?

We were approached by anonymous callers saying they would you like to work with us and so on. That had been a quite open thing, we had talked to not only Sidath but to other players, current and past, who were close to us during these instances. Because we didn't have anything to hide, we were open about it. We were just getting calls and we never had discussions or meetings with them because we didn't want to do that.

Q: Have you noticed presence of bookmakers with your team-mates?

We were just getting calls, and that's how they start it. We never encouraged those callers and we were not involved in it. We have had discussions at a few team meetings about not getting tempted and not entertaining these sort of people.

Q: To finish with, Roshan, you are a father of three kids, how do you manage your time to be with the family and to play cricket?

As sportsmen we have got to make sacrifices, whenever I was free when I was playing for the country, I tried to be with the family. Now that I am retired from international cricket, I have given priority to my family life. Then when I got the offer to go and play in Australia I decided to take my family also, because there is no point in you playing club cricket away from home. Of course when you play for you country you have to make sacrifices. But when it comes to other obligations my priority will be my family. Even now I am doing my own business, I have planned it in a way that I spend more time with my family.